Learning Lua / Modding The Game

[hatem]

I'm not a programmer (no formal education that is) but I know how to read and write code and I found the game to be really inspiring and a great motivation to learn something new (I'm reading the "Lua programming book" right now).

 

I have a couple of questions about modding the game. I know it's not officially supported for this game, but the game files are open and editable and I just had to try it. It feels amazing to have an idea and actually be able to implement it and see it in action. Still though, I'm doing things the hard way by trying to figure out on my own how everything works together and I'm sure a few pointers could make that process a lot easier. 

 

Mainly I'd like to know a bit more about basic debugging when making changes. right now I have to edit the file, save it, start the game and hope for the best. If it fails (freezes) I close the game and try to guess where I got it wrong. I tried to turn on the developer options but got some weird results. 

My questions are:

1. How do I enable debugging for the game (know where the buggy line is, mainly)? 
   
2. Is there a way to manually spawn things? like drones, guards, safes and such..
   

I enjoy figuring out the logic behind the game on my own but I'd like to do it a bit more efficiently.

I'd really appreciate any help on the subject. You know... for educational purposes