I've now done some actual research on the topic of Dungeon Siege engine modding, since I prefer to actually know what I'm talking about before I start insulting the people I'm having a conversation with. And hey, look what I found:
http://garage.gaspowered.com/?q=su_304
Introduction
This Article Is About How To Extend The Dungeon Siege Engine With New Functions That You Create. Even Though There Are Thousands Of Functions Available To Be Called From Skrit, Sometimes You Just Have To Write Your Own Function To Get What You Want Done. For Example, Say You Are Creating A Mod That Needs To Talk To A Database To Register Player Stats, Or You Want To Do Something Simple Like Query The System Time In Order To Make Your Mod "Real Time". To Do Either Of These Things You Will Need To Create A Set Of Functions In An Engine Extension That Can Be Called From Within Your Mod's Skrit Code.
In A Nutshell, To Extend Dungeon Siege With New Engine Functions For Skrit To Use:
Create A Dynamically Linked Library (DLL) And Set Its Output Extension To Be .Dsdll Rather Than .Dll.
Export The Functions Using The Compiler's "Declspec( Dllexport )" Tag That You Want The Game To See.
Put The Resulting .Dsdll File In The Same Directory As DungeonSiege.Exe.
The .Dsdll Is Simply A Plain DLL Renamed To .Dsdll And Loaded With Exported Functions. As Such, It Can Do Whatever It Likes In The System, Calling Out To The Internet, Playing Sounds, Reading The Keyboard, Using Files On The Hard Drive, Etc. - There Are No Limitations Placed On What DLL's Can Do In Windows.
So...you can extend the Dungeon Siege engine using external Dungeon Siege-specific DLL's. Written without access to the source code. Almost exactly like my theory predicted. Wow, it's like I actually know something about technical design and programming, like I do this for a living or something, as opposed to some sad fuck who helps run an RPG website. Of course, I could be wrong, maybe you are a software developer as well. I imagine you're a pretty shitty one, given your complete lack of imagination, but hey, someone out there has to be write that crappy VB code and throw insults at anyone who thinks outside the box.
Even knowing this, you may not consider Dungeon Siege to be anything more than a mod, since those DLL's - as powerful as they are - are still just extending the DS scripting language and not actually modifying the source code directly. I will admit by comparison to UT3 vs. Mass Effect or Bioshock was not a fair comparison, and I was wrong to make it. Obviously, this is not the same as buying the rights to an engine and changing the actual source, but it's pretty damn powerful. I was also wrong to use the term "modify" the engine rather than "extend" the engine. Still, a talented development team could do quite a bit with the ability to extend the DS engine with DLL's, but then, if you'd actually played Lazarus, you'd already know that.
At thist point, it really becomes a semantic discussion as to what a "mod" is. If they'd bought the rights to the engine and had access to the source code, and changed a single variable name, and recompiled the engine, would that make it worthy of being a full game rather than "just a mod"? Where is the line drawn? I guess it's quite clear we won't agree, and any further discussion with you on this point is irrelevant, as you've shown that you just immediately devolve into personal insults rather than doing 10 whole minutes of "research" on Google to better understand what you're talking about.
