Ship Scheduling - FastTrek Docs

Introduction to Scheduling

FastTrek’s ship scheduler allows you to create detailed date- and time-based schedules for each individual ship.

Each schedule has a start time and can repeat on set weekdays (or run only once).

They can also each have unlimited multiple steps, which can be set to loop.

So for example, you could configure a single dock to perform your entire daily grind at a particular time every day:

Freebooters
V’Ger
Academy Hostiles
Aggregation
Xindi
Mirror Universe
Quantum Adjudicators
etc, etc

Use with Ship and Crew swapping for a truly powerful combination.

Weekly repeating events and grinds are another great candidate, as are the rotating Galactic Anomalies.

You can also use a single dock with a survey ship to run separate grinds day vs night:

Ore/Crystal/Gas loop (day time)
Multiple grades of Isogenite loop (night time)
Transogen loop (another ship, maybe)

Opening the Scheduler

The scheduler is accessed via the calendar icon button () in the bottom left of the UI.

Using the Scheduler Overview

The overview shows all currently configured schedules with your custom name.
Use the drop-down in the top left to filter by ship/dock.
and buttons (top right) open the respective new/blank editor. (see Territory Capture for details)
Hovering over a row shows a brief summary of the steps involved in that schedule (e.g. Sunday Disco -> 10 hostiles in Risette).
Individual schedules can be enabled/disabled by placing/removing the check mark in front.
Use the pencil to edit a schedule, the other buttons to copy or delete.

Adding and Editing a Schedule

Scheduling options

Name

An identifier for your convenience. Shows up in the Scheduler Overview, and automations are always sorted by name.

Ship

Which ship/dock to run this schedule on.

Start date

Optional

If you combine a start date with repeating days, this will be the first day from which the schedule becomes active.

If you have a start date, but do not specify any repeating days, the schedule becomes a one-off task and will disable itself after running. This could work great for advance-scheduling of particular events while you’re on holiday.

Time

The time when to activate this schedule.

Missed runs

What should happen if FastTrek isn’t running when the schedule is due?

Skip - Don’t bother running it at all (e.g. if matching Galactic Anomaly timings).
Catch up - Start even if late (up to 12 hours).

Resume previous activity afterwards

The “resume” setting governs what happens when the scheduled automation ends:

True/Checked: If the ship was automated when this schedule started, the previous automation is restored with its completion stats as at that time.

If the ship wasn’t automated through FastTrek, it won’t be sent back out.
False/Unchecked: When this automation ends, the ship stops.

Repeat on days

Optional

Select on which days this schedule should repeat. For example, send the USS Discovery out every Sunday for Anomalous Phenomena or running some Armadas for Dimensional Breach every Wednesday.

Automation steps/profiles

A schedule consists of multiple steps, which run in a sequence. Each step is an automation profile in its own right.

You can chain an unlimited number of steps, constrained only by the total time taken on each dock (covering a full 24 hours in distinct profiles and having everything repeat is untested).

The buttons to add step, clone step, remove step, should be self-explanatory, as are move up and down.

When adding a step, you have options to:

Link an existing profile
Copy from an existing profile
Start an automation profile from scratch

Link existing profile

With this option we are loading an existing named profile by name. This can avoid duplication, especially if you often also start the same profile manually. Saving your profile means that the next scheduled run will use the updated settings.

Custom (copy or start from scratch)

With this option we are cloning a profile or creating a brand new one.

You then have full access to edit all options, just as you would when setting up a ship for ad-hoc grinds.

Loop the whole sequence forever

When the last step completes, start again from the top. This is the equivalent of chaining ‘then switch to’ named profiles and creating a loop.

Interrupt existing schedules

When multiple scheduled tasks on the same ship overlap, the default behaviour is to queue them up and run them one after the other.

This leads to a conflict when:

A schedule is set to loop forever.
A schedule contains a last step that is set to loop forever.

To allow tasks to be ‘slotted in’, set them to interrupt existing schedules instead of being queued up.

Depending on the combination of ‘Interrupt’ and ‘Resume previous activity’, this will create the following behaviours for scheduled and ad-hoc (manually started) automations:

Interrupt + Resume

Interrupt	Resume	Behaviour
	/	Append to the ship’s queue, effectively running them in order of their schedule. The resume setting on the first schedule determines if a previously running ad-hoc automation is resumed at the very end.
		Run this, then continue the interrupted schedule. Nested interruption will unwind and resume in the expected reverse order.
		Full interruption: discard the ship’s existing queue, run this schedule, end when done.

A genuine use-case could be to establish different mining schedules during day and night, for example:

Schedule one defines a loop that mines Isogenite from 6am onwards. It has 3 steps, alternating between the different grades.
It is set to loop forever. It is set to Interrupt, but not resume.
Schedule two defines a loop that mines Crystal, Gas and Ore from 8pm onwards. It has 3 steps, one for each material. It is set to loop forever. It is set to Interrupt, but not resume.

The net effect is that the ship will mine Isogenite from 6am-8pm and Crystal/Gas/Ore from 8pm to 6am.

Deleting a Schedule

Use the bin/trash icon. You’ll be asked to confirm the deletion.