Target Locations - FastTrek Docs

Target Locations determine where your ships are sent to grind or mine when using the FastTrek Bot for Star Trek® Fleet Command.

When setting up a Ship Automation, you can choose from various target locations:

Local

The ship will operate in the system where it is currently located. Best for quick ad-hoc tasks like completing a ‘kill X hostiles’ mission.

Use the “Local” target location when the ship is already in the right system (or en route if currently warping).

Careful with ‘local’ Repeats

“Local” is the quickest way to get started, but has only limited ability to repeat the grind:

What are the limitations?

Hostile hunt: If any hostile hunt/combat mode is set to repeat with this option, FastTrek will make a best effort to read the system’s name and send the ship back next time.

But there is a chance that the ship will remain in the player’s home system, if it could not determine the actual location.

Otherwise it is the most convenient option and is well suited for example if you move your base for faction rep grinding.

Mining: When repeat mining with this option, FastTrek will keep the mine in focus while the ship returns to base. It will also try to read the current system name and type of resource in order to be able to return even if disrupted.

FastTrek will wait for the miner to return home before sending it straight back to the same node, which stays on screen during this time. No other actions can be taken during this time, so it is best suited for mining with a relatively short journey.

If mining in deep space there is a possibility that this won’t work. This will then be due to an inability to read the system name.

Possible solutions to this are:

trying in a different system
specifying the system name (see below)
parking another ship in the system to keep it visible throughout the recall-resend-cycle.
Using a bookmark instead (see below)

System

The “System” target location uses the bookmarks system to search for a particular system by name.

Auto-completion

The system search field offers intuitive auto-completion of all the star systems in the game, using whichever language you’re currently running the game in. (You may need to restart if you switch languages half way through a session.)

The system selector shows:

System name
Warp range
Warp token requirement ().
Hostile Levels and their Factions (for hostile hunt modes)
Mining node grades (for mining mode)

For each automation mode and for each supported mining resource, FastTrek will remember the last 10 systems used. For most this will mean instantly having your favourite system selected as soon as you switch to that mode.

Smart Suggestions

FastTrek system search is smart enough to suggest the most relevant systems first. For example, for the Voyager Bioship mode it will only suggest systems that have summonable hostiles.

If you select a resource for mining, only systems containing those nodes will appear in the system search results. Try typing “G3” or “G4”, etc, and corresponding mining grades will be shown.

And if you enter a filter for Keyword Hunter, it will only suggest systems with corresponding hostiles.

System sort order

Auto-complete sorts systems in the following order:

Nearest Match to user entered text.
Appearance in Recent History.
Mining systems by same grade, higher grade, lower grade.
Hostiles by similar level (about 2 levels higher or lower), higher levels, lower levels in descending order.
Warp Range required
Alphabetical by name.

Screenshots

Highlighting
Partial name matches are highlighted as you type.

Mode-based filtering
Some modes only show relevant systems. Here, only those with summonable hostiles are shown for the Voyager Bioship mode.

History by Automation Type
Each mode maintains its own history, so the most recently used systems for that mode are shown first. Here, the Keyword Hunter mode also only shows systems with hostiles matching the current keyword filter.

Mining Systems by Grade
When selecting a mining system, systems of the most recently mined grade are shown first, followed by higher and lower grades.

Ship

The “Ship” target location allows you to use another ship as an ‘anchor’. This is very fast and reliable to switch, as bookmarks and menu navigation are not involved.

If the anchor ship (the one we’re travelling to) is in warp – meaning it can’t be switched to by pressing a number key – but its destination is known, for instance because it is a named system or using a bookmark, FastTrek will send to that destination by performing a lookup to save time.

Hostile Hunt: Works well for modes such as the Borg Cube Cutting Beam, especially in deep space, but you do need to dedicate a second ship. Where it also shines is Amalgam looting: place one ship in a suitable system and have it target the combat ships only. Set your Amalgam to warp to that ship and hit the surveys. That way time spent looking for the right system is minimised. However, “Numbered bookmarks” also work well for the Amalgam.

Named Bookmark

The “Named Bookmark” target location uses your bookmarks and attempts to read them with OCR. It will navigate if it finds a match.

In addition to the bookmark name you also choose which bookmark tab to use: All, ⭐ Star, 👥 Friend, ☠️ Enemy.

Tips for bookmark naming

The game font is difficult to read and some names may not be recognised properly.

You will need to experiment a little to find names that work reliably.

Upper case English letters should be the most reliable.
Avoid using similar letters like ‘o0ijLl’, accents or special characters like punctuation.
Short names should be more reliable than long ones.
Avoid multiple names that are similar to each other.

It is undoubtedly flexible, but should be considered the least reliable of the available options, due to the font issue.

Numbered Bookmark

The “Numbered Bookmark” target location uses your bookmarks and will simply click on one of the first 6 that are visible.

In addition to the bookmark number you also choose which bookmark tab to use: All, ⭐ Star, 👥 Friend, ☠️ Enemy.

In contrast to Named bookmarks, there is no need for OCR, which significantly improves reliability and speed. There is no need to worry about the naming, and it is also faster than a system lookup due to just requiring two clicks.

As a slight downside, this currently has a limit of 18 bookmarks (6 per tab), and their position affects the result. So if you decide to create a new bookmark, you will need to adjust the bookmark number for any running automations and saved profiles.