Hi Creatura, glad to hear you're working on your project again. SoM uses AVI movies
I think the laggy start when testing a map is from a bug in SoM's sound handling and it goes away when the first sound effect is played. If you don't want to open the menu each time you test a map, you can put a 'Play Sound' command in the 'SYS Open MAP' event. Setting 'Menu Sound Effect' to 'None' in the System editor also seems to work. Just remember to set it back before you release your game.
As far as a Georgian font, there are a couple ways that might work. One is through Mick's
Ex setup- but I can't advise you on that one. The other way is a bit more complicated.
As far as custom models, Mick's
MDL tool can theoretically convert multiple model formats (maybe 3ds) to SoM's MDL format. I've only tried it with animated X files made in Metasequoia (using the Keynote plugin).
To generate a non-animated MDO model, the source model needs to be in X format (Metasequoia can open a 3DS file, then save in in X format). Then use x2mdo to turn the X into an MDO. There is info about the procedure in the tutorial section here.