This gets asked a lot, but I want to make my official answers very clear:
Lillian what will happen to the free version we have now, will all versions up to steam launch be available?
The game currently has no (and I have no plans to add) DRM that will cause it to stop working once it launches on Steam, so if you've already downloaded it, you can keep playing it. I am undecided about whether I will leave the pre-Steam versions available for download, though I'm leaning towards yes.
Once the game becomes paid, you'll need to buy it in order to get further updates.
Lillian Will we still be able to play multiplayer with steam buyers?
Multiplayer is never supported between different versions of Cosmoteer, so no, Steam players will not be able to play with people who have pre-Steam Cosmoteer.
I will also probably not keep the server for pre-Steam versions running, meaning any players still on the pre-Steam versions will need to run their own servers or use the "Connect via I.P." option.
It's always possible that a new update will break mods. If the Steam launch happens to coincide with a big update, then it's possible a bunch of mods would be broken for the Steam launch, but that has nothing to do with Steam and everything to do with new features getting added. (And having a bunch of mods available day-1 on Steam would be great, so I will try to avoid breaking mods right before launch.)
It's also possible that Steam Workshop imposes some requirements on mods that I'm not aware of, which could mean that mods will need updating to work with that. (Although I do not intend to remove support for non-Workshop mods.)
I don't know myself. The best I can tell you is not in the first half of 2018.
I'm not sure yet, but probably in the $15-20 USD range. NO PROMISES!!!
