So, I recently bought Privateer and started playing it again, and I'm having a blast. However, I've noticed that when I'm running Steam and I start up Privateer, Steam drops offline. When I tab back out (to look at the manual for example) Steam goes back online, then off again when I go back into the game.

Anyone else seen this happen before? It seems like Steam doesn't play well with DOSBox, but no idea why the two would have a conflict. Not really a big deal, just wondering why it does that.

I'm not sure what's going on in your case, but, I'm not experiencing that issue when I load up Privateer. I actually have some games on Steam that use Dosbox (X-Com series for one) and have no issues like you're describing. Could you post more information on your computer system and operating system? Running any additional background programs like software firewalls, security suites, ect?

I think this is normal behaviour when playing games that aren't launched through Steam.

If you want to be logged into Steam when playing this or any other GOG game you can add it to your Steam games list and then launch it using Steam. This will also let you access the Steam overlay (although some games won't work with it).