Just spreading the word... Does anyone remember this (excellent) DRM-laced game which flat out required a constant internet connection to play?

Well, rejoice! Here I was, trying to launch it today, only to be greeted with a UPlay update making my beloved Settlers 7 100% playable in offline mode.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a settlement to build.

I've been playing it for the last couple of days, works like a charm. It's almost surreal.

So... What are the chances of the game getting a GOG release now?

did this not happen about about about a year ago?

and though it is no longer always online anymore, it still have need UPlay (I think)

UPlay is pretty irrelevant if it doesn't force you to play online at all times IMO.

Games like Assassin's Creed 2, Silent Hunter 5 and Splinter Cell:Conviction had their DRM removed a long time ago, that is correct. However, Settlers 7 and HAWX 2 retained the always-online requirement... until approximately a week ago. It serves as a simple launcher - nothing intrusive or even remotely annoying, really.

I swear I played it offline last year...

edit - maybe not. I am always online when I play anyway, so I guess I just don't notice

Just so that you (or me) are not misunderstanding something:

From your current PC where you are running the game, move it to another PC which is not connected to internet. Can you still install and play it there, without any online activation needed?

If it still needs to be activated online before you can install or play it for the first time on that other PC, then unfortunately it still has online DRM. There's nothing new in that, there have been also other "always online"-DRM games that changed the DRM to "ok, you need to activate it only once when you install it on a new PC, but you still have to activate it"-DRM.

Which, of course, is still much more preferable form of DRM.

Doesn't Ubisoft do the whole "Well, okay you can play offline...but if you do you don't get X, Y, and Z feature."

I remember hearing that I think a Heroes of Might and Magic game or something would not allow certain characters to be played offline and you couldn't use a save both online and offline.

Wow!

All you have to do is install the game, update it to the latest version (via UPlay or manually, if you so desire), then connect to the internet only once when running the executable. It is worth mentioning that the first two of the aformentioned steps can be done entirely offline.
In other words - yes, a one-time activation is still in place, but the always-online requirement is -oh, joy!- totally gone.

Yes, but I think even that one-time online activation would be against GOG's current policy about DRM. Just mentioning because you asked when GOG would release the game too.

But nice anyway that Ubisoft keeps loosening the DRM from their most draconian methods. Maybe they originally thought "Hey, if Blizzard can do it with Diablo 3, why shouldn't we do it as well?". They must be mightily annoyed that so many people are not fine with always-online DRM on their games, so they are backing down from it for now. I guess that's why they are also pushing the "social features" in so many games, then they can claim it is not DRM anymore, even if even a single-player game needs to contact their servers.

By the way, I presume it still keeps tracks of the activations. So is there some known limitation now on how many PCs the game can be installed/activated? We've already had all these "3-5 activations and yer out!"-type of schemes, and many people didn't seem to be too fond of them either.

The activation would need to be removed, that goes without saying. :)

None whatsoever. The activation ties your copy of the game to your UPlay account.