Ayy I used to work on MTA wayyyyy back when it started and everyone was figuring it out. With all the reverse-engineering and hacking, coding etc it was actually a bit of an adventure. I started working on a multiplayer GTA myself because I wanted it so bad (ill equipped but determined), and ended up joining with some of the early team. Really proud of everyone getting it together and keeping it going.
I remember when we first got shooting working and we were all shooting each other outside that Vice City club that was the default spawn point for a while. I'll always remember the feeling of being the first people that ever played multiplayer GTA... wanting it so bad we manifested it.
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Personally I just kept programming and doing random game dev stuff, I released a game made in Unreal Engine using the voxel plugin:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079300/Goblin_Keep/
I felt incapable of supporting the game after release but I did it for the same reason at MTA, I just wanted to do it.
Thanks to the team for keeping this going, who all did a lot more work on it than me