Never written Lua? Never made an OpenMW script? Do not know what a language server is? Start here.
You do not need to know Lua. You do not need to know OpenMW's scripting architecture. You do not need to know what a language server is.
By the end of this path, you will have built a working OpenMW Lua mod, configured editor diagnostics and completion through Cod3x, made scripts communicate across contexts, saved state, put something on screen, and built a small end-to-end project.
The path is deliberately concrete. Learn the smallest useful thing, make it run, then read the architectural material that explains why it works.
Start here
- 01 What Is Lua? Learn what embedded scripting means.
- 02 Learn Enough Lua to Be Dangerous Read and write the syntax Cod3x assumes.
- 03 What Is OpenMW Lua? Understand the engine as your host.
- 04 Your First OpenMW Lua Mod Register a file, run it, and see a message.
- 05 What the Hell Is a Language Server? Understand editor completion and diagnostics.
- 06 Set Up Cod3x Make your editor understand OpenMW.
- 07 Scripts Have Contexts Put behavior where its authority lives.
- 08 Make Two Scripts Talk Choose direct calls, events, or interfaces.
- 09 Objects, Records, and Cells Tell instances from definitions and locations.
- 10 Keep Some State Choose locals, storage, or save data deliberately.
- 11 Put Something on the Screen Start with a message and grow toward UI.
- 12 React to the Player Use input and handlers without polling everything.
- 13 Build Cell Greeter Combine registration, state, cell tracking, and UI.
- 14 Where Do I Go From Here? Choose the next branch with a working mod behind you.
Where to go after the path
Understand the engine
Learn the mental models that make OpenMW's API boundaries predictable.
Build useful features
Find the smallest correct recipe for the thing you want to make.
Become dangerous responsibly
Once it works, learn how to keep it readable, fast, and hard to break.
The destination
The destination is not “you have read fourteen pages.” It is a working mod and enough confidence to change it without guessing.
After the capstone, branch into:
- Getting Started to learn how OpenMW actually thinks;
- Cookbook for a specific small task;
- Good Designs for abstractions that earned their existence;
- Engineering Practice for maintainable code;
- Performance when measurement says something is slow;
- Paid For With Blood when a rule sounds oddly specific.
You are not trying to become a language theorist. You are making the ascension to raccoon-with-sudo: enough power to do useful work, enough respect for the boundaries not to set the house on fire.