C and C++ are not interpreted languages - toribash runs scripts as it reads them. They are not precompiled (at least visibly??).
Lua was probably chosen because of its C-style but non-verbose (usually) syntax and maturity. Homeworld (and a ton of other games) also uses Lua for scripting.
Lua is actually fairly popular for game scripting - even now its familiar syntax, portability, speed and ability to be easily embedded made it stand out. Even today, I can't think of another language that provides all three features as nicely as Lua does.
Lua is also a pretty clean langauge - unlike javascript for example which has some more questionable structures and features
Last edited by Fear; May 18, 2017 at 05:58 PM.