Full Changelog

3.0.0

Major New Features

Feature	Description
StoryMode	Story Mode sections can exist separately from chatrooms and take a trigger time and a title. This also replaces the previous VNMode class.
StoryCall	Phone calls can appear in the timeline and be mandatory for story progression. If a story call expires, the character will leave a voicemail. Story calls can exist on their own with a trigger time or can be attached to Story Mode sections or chatrooms. Only one story call per character is allowed, but multiple story calls with different callers can exist on the same timeline item.
msg CDS	A new way of writing chatroom and text message dialogue. Automatically adds text tags and parses emojis as images. Can also add new speech bubbles and fonts to work with this CDS.
text backlog CDS	Allows messages to be added as "backlog" to a character's text message conversation history. Can manually set the date/time the message appears, relative to the current date/time.
compose text CDS	Replaces calls like call compose_text(r) and call compose_text_end("menu_a2"). Makes it easier to set up and write text messages, and even schedule when they should be delivered.
Choice paraphrasing	Can turn paraphrase_choices on or off on a global, per-menu, or per-choice basis to dictate whether or not the program should automatically make the main character say the dialogue in the selected choice.
Bonus profile pictures	Characters have bonus profile pictures that are unlocked based on user-defined conditions or when seen in-game. NPC profile pictures cost 5 heart points with that character to unlock, and player profile pictures cost 1 hourglass. These values are modifiable.
Profile picture callback	When the player changes their profile picture, a special function is called that allows the characters to comment on their profile picture choice (e.g. by phoning them or sending a text message)
scene and show extention	scene and show have been extended to allow chatroom backgrounds to be set with scene morning instead of call chat_begin('morning'). Most other effects, such as banners, can be shown via show commands like show banner heart or show hack effect.
timed menu CDS	Timed menus are now typed like regular menus. The dialogue before the first choice will dictate how long the timer is. Choices are shown on-screen while the characters continue messaging. A preferences option turns timed menus into regular menus, and a slider allows for timed menu "bullet time" so that the chat speed can be fast but timed menus slow down to give players time to read.
Email system improvements	Email chains can be of an arbitrary length with any number of replies. Failing an email can still continue an email chain. A string parser makes using triple-quoted strings to type emails much more readable. Players can choose to reply to an email later after clicking Reply.
call chat_begin / jump phone_end-style calls removed	The program handles the setup and cleanup of all timeline items. All labels can simply begin without further ado and all labels can end with return.

Minor New Features

Feature	Description
add_to_album function	Allows you to append a photo to an album after the game has begun.
hide_albums function	If set, allows you to hide albums from the Album screen unless they have an unlocked CG in them already. Takes a list or a single Album.
_branch for parties	The Party can exist on its own with a trigger time, and may have a _branch label which will execute when the player enters the party.
Guestbook Hourglasses	The player is awarded 1 hourglass (HG) the first time they view a guest in the guestbook.
invite guest CDS	Replaces call invite(guest).
award heart and break heart CDS	Replaces call heart_icon(s) and call heart_break(s), respectively. break heart can also be written as heart break.
enter chatroom and exit chatroom CDS	New way of writing call enter(s) and call exit(s) respectively.
Custom speech bubbles	Can use provided functions to set custom speech bubbles or do things like let Unknown use Ray's speech bubbles.
was_expired variable	This variable is set before the game executes an after_ label. Allows you to change dialogue depending on whether or not the associated item was participated in or if it expired.
-b and -thumb for album images	You can now define thumbnails and -b variants on thumbnails for gallery images. These variants will be used for bonus profile pictures.
History screen customization	Can now add backgrounds to routes in the history screen. A rectangular image will automatically have the corners cropped to fit the button. Can also add prologues through a special variable in variables_editable.rpy.
.webp and .ogg conversion	Most images have been converted to .webp to reduce file size. Some audio files have been converted to .ogg for similar reasons.
call answer removed	call answer is no longer required before a chatroom or text message menu.
custom_route_select_screen	Can easily switch between a custom route select screen and the default one. Default route select improved to have additional graphics.

Fixes

Fix	Description
History cleanup	RouteDays without content don't show up in the History. Single-day routes are centered in the screen.
buyahead	Buying 24 hours in advance while playing in real-time will continue to unlock items up to the 24 hour mark after proceeding through a plot branch in the middle of the purchased 24 hours.
Text message preview	Text message previews can properly handle text tags such as special fonts or sizes.
Sign screen	Sign screen doesn't show hourglasses/heart points if the player was just replaying it or the item was expired.
Pronoun fixes	Capitalized variants of pronoun variables are automatically defined.
Observing improvements	Replaying Story Mode/phone calls during a playthrough now only presents you with the choices you made on that particular playthrough.
Screen shake	Screen shake now works with animated backgrounds. It can be shown via show shake.
Profile picture flexibility	Profile pictures can now use solid colours or cropped/transformed images.
Messenger Error screen	The program will try to catch operational errors and award the player an hourglass if something fails but it is able to recover.
Viewing CGs	Viewing CGs full-screen while on the messenger or viewing a text message now simply halts the game state while it is being viewed instead of manually pausing the chat.
Home screen grid fix	The home screen now properly calculates how many pictures it will be showing so the grid is not over- or underfull.

QoL Improvements

Feature	Description
play music and play sound	New CDSs replace call play_music() and call play_sfx(). Can be typed and used the same way as the regular Ren'Py function, but is now compatible with audio captions.
Custom ending screens	Can now define your own ending image and pass the whole string to the ending variable upon ending a route.
create_incoming_call	Easy way of creating a new incoming call; intended primarily to be used in combination with profile picture callbacks.
Keyboard shortcuts	Space bar selects most chatroom footer options, like play/pause/answer/save & exit and the Sign button. Left/right arrows decrease/increase the chat speed.
TimelineItem class	All timeline items (chatrooms and VN mode) have been switched to inherit from a base TimelineItem class. The new classes allow for more flexibility such as standalone story calls and story mode sections, and the individual items in a chain can all have a separate after_ label.
String to filename conversion	Guest names and album names can be converted to a filename which the program can search for to find images associated with that name. all_albums definitions can be modified to reflect this.
persistent.testing_mode improvements	Activating Testing Mode from the Developer options will now show a button to instantly end a chatroom. It also removes a lot of the confirm-style message and allows you to right-click an item on the timeline to instantly mark it as played for testing purposes.
persistent.unlock_all_story	An option, Unlock All Story, in the Developer options will make all timeline items immediately available. Plot branches can be proceeded through without playing all prior items.
Save slots	Save slots are now paged rather than one long list.
add_choices for spaceship thoughts	Can now append a new choice to a list of spaceship thoughts.
main_character variable	A character defined as the main character will say non-paraphrased dialogue automatically and be moved to the right side of the messenger.
persistent.pv	pv (for chatroom speed) is now persistent and will carry over across playthroughs and on the history screens.

Other

Feature	Description
Folder restructure	Engine code has been moved to the 01_mysme_engine folder. Modifiable code, or code that is expected to be added to by the user, is directly inside the game/ folder.
Casual and Jaehee Route	A stub implementation of Casual Story and Jaehee Route is implemented as an example. Allows for easy testing of real-time mechanics and demonstrates a complete route definition with branches for multiple endings.
show_empty_menus	Can choose whether timed menus with no choices (e.g. all choices have conditions which evaluate to False) should show their dialogue or be skipped altogether.
Script error screen	The program will try to detect when you have made an error in your script and notify you or direct you to an appropriate wiki page rather than crashing.
missing_label and missing_image callbacks	The program will try to correct and/or recover from missing labels or missing images without disrupting the program.
use_timed_menus	persistent.autoanswer_timed_menus has been renamed to persistent.use_timed_menus. The preference option is titled Timed Menus.

Renamed Variables

Many variables have been renamed or replaced with other functions for clarity with the new TimelineItem implementation. They are listed below.

Old Name	New Name
post_chat_actions	reset_story_vars
persistent.completed_chatrooms	persistent.completed_story
plot_branch_end()	execute_plot_branch
num_future_chatrooms	num_future_timeline_items
chatroom_hg	collected_hg
chatroom_hp	collected_hp
chat_archive	story_archive
.chatroom_label	.item_label
most_recent_chat	most_recent_item
current_chatroom	current_timeline_item
screen chatroom_item	timeline_item_display
screen chatroom_item_history	timeline_item_history
screen chatroom_timeline	timeline
next_chatroom	check_and_unlock_story
next_chat_time	next_story_time
chat_24_available	make_24h_available
screen chat_select	day_select
screen day_select	day_display