The Settlers Online with Google Chrome

[Durin_d]

Google is planning to block Flash content in Chrome later this year (Q4/2016)[1] (https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!searchin/chromium-dev/HTML5$20by$20default/chromium-dev/0wWoRRhTA_E/__E3jf40OAAJ) and this includes The Settlers Online. This doesn't mean that we can't play TSO with Chrome but it means that after the change the game won't load automatically unless we accept the Flash content to be played or add TSO to the list of allowed Flash content.

This change is part of the long death of Flash and previous changes last summer [2] (https://chrome.googleblog.com/2015/06/better-battery-life-for-your-laptop.html) to running Flash content in Chrome has made playing TSO with Chrome harder. Last summer Chrome started to "intelligently" pause content (like Flash animations) that aren’t central to the webpage. This pause happens also when we put TSO in to the background tab. After a while Chrome pauses TSO and stops the connection to the game and chat servers resulting in a connection error. At the moment enabling the game background sound seems to be a workaround for this by keeping TSO from pausing in the background tab.

I would like to hear from BlueByte what's their take on these changes and how are they preparing for the day when the Flash support is completely removed from the browsers or at least one of the main browsers.

[1] https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!searchin/chromium-dev/HTML5$20by$20default/chromium-dev/0wWoRRhTA_E/__E3jf40OAAJ
[2] https://chrome.googleblog.com/2015/06/better-battery-life-for-your-laptop.html

[Garbonzo]

A good question. I have been wondering the same thing. It can't be beyond the wit of BlueByte to port Settlers Online to a less deprecated platform. Some reassurance would be very welcome.

[TheVictorious]

I hope they just revamp all the game to OpenGL or DirectX game, browser game no more liked, and the flash is going to be dead in 2 or 3 years

Maybe they easy to make settlers like Banished game, it will be nice, but need some graphic efforts, the re-write part of code maybe only for front end (client side) mostly.

[FastSimTSOmaps]

http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/15/11679394/chrome-to-block-flash-later-2016

What is happening with settlers online?, is this the reason to release a browser? will it change to html5?

Please give us some tips.

Thanks in advance

[TotoMok]

Hopefully they will push it to HTML5. There's a lot of convenience of it being a web-browser based app (can play anywhere, including on machines you are not allowed to install software on).

Could be a good exercise for some interns... maybe its already in the works and they don't wish to talk about it.

[kendris]

People have been saying flash is going to die any time soon for the last five years, it may not be as widely used as it once was but I'm sure it still has a little life in it

[Mannerheim]

Based on what BB has said in the past at the German forums is that HTML5 version was not even planned and the solution in the future is the downloadable version that has been available on Steam and front page for months (haven't seen if they have changed their mind)

[BB_Ravel]

The way I see it, the "blocking" of Flash can also be seen as an end to the "autoplay" function of Flash.
According to the original post (https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!searchin/chromium-dev/HTML5$20by$20default/chromium-dev/0wWoRRhTA_E/__E3jf40OAAJ), "if a site truly requires Flash, a prompt will appear at the top of the page when the user first visits that site, giving them the option of allowing it to run for that site".
Not only does this sound easy to enable, but prompting users to enable Flash on a site-to-site basis (instead of running Flash by default) raises user awareness when it comes to which Flash applications are running on their machine.

There are many websites that will continue to use Flash. The post mentions the plan comes with a default whitelist. Youtube, owned by Google, is at the top of the whitelist, so it's safe to say that Flash will be around for quite a while.
Because of this and also because changing the technology would mean a huge amount of work, there are currently no plans to port the game to a different technology such as HTML5. The focus is currently on providing support and content for the game instead of diverting a massive amount of resources to rewrite everything.

In conclusion, there is no actual reason for concern. It is possible that reducing the number of Flash applications by requiring them to be whitelisted could actually be an upside as it might improve loading times in certain cases.

[Durin_d]

The behavior of Chrome will be the same like it is now if you select "Let me choose when to run plugin content" from the following list in the Chrome content settings.
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ue7m6QaVHF4/VXCbX30amzI/AAAAAAAAAlM/nDOP8gNxsoc/s320/Screenshot%2B2015-06-04%2Bat%2B11.36.18%2BAM.png

The problem will be that after the change there will be a lot of support tickets to support saying that TSO won't work if players aren't aware that they have to allow flash to run on thesettlersonline.com website.

I agree that Flash will be around for a long time but this change shows that browser vendors like Google are beginning to force website to look for other technology (HTML5). If and when Google decides to remove Flash from Chrome will be the end of playing TSO for me since Chrome is the only browser on Linux that supports Flash.

The Steam and downloadable version are still the same Flash game that are just run in a non-web-browser applications.

[Mannerheim]

The Steam and downloadable version are still the same Flash game that are just run in a non-web-browser applications.

Well it uses their customized Chromium so they can maintain it forever and continue using the builtin Flash implementation even if Flash dies for good.

But I agree that the biggest hit with these blocks and warnings is that they will reduce future customer base no matter if you can disable and bypass all warnings. Note that there are a lot of people who dislike Chrome and use other browsers that have already similar removal plans as Chrome. New users will just skip the game and old player base shrink slowly.

[SmurfAsH]

If and when Google decides to remove Flash from Chrome will be the end of playing TSO for me since Chrome is the only browser on Linux that supports Flash.
No, it's not.

[Durin_d]

No, it's not.

What other Linux web browser has newer version than 11.2 of Flash supported?


I know that Chromium, Steam, QtWebengine etc. Chromium based browsers/frameworks can use the Flash plugin from Chrome but if that plugin is not available then what.

[Vag_Chr]

You can use Opera with the same plugin from Chromium (pepper- Flash)
Also you can use this with Pepper-Flash in Μοzilla based browser (Firefox , Midori , QupZilla) :
https://github.com/i-rinat/freshplayerplugin