RSW

Okay, so something changed at some point and people and documentation are out of sync. The help file says that probes go out before combat and I've been told that this is the way things work by others.
"A fleet may probe one or more worlds adjacent to the world it orbits at the beginning of the turn, at the cost of one ship per world probed. "

This isn't the way things work though. If a fleet is under fire and has no survivors, the probes don't go. The simulator tells you this if you predict attacks be it I-ships or fleets.

Currently the ships allocated to probes take part in combat and also probing (if they survive) as far as I've been able to tell whereas the way it's stated in the manual would imply that probes escape before combat and are in that sense completely reliable.

Hmm, sounds like I need to fix either the code or the documentation.

So, I wonder which way is correct? Does anyone want to chime in with the way this is handled in the official FBI game?

Thanks,
David

I asked FBI about this same issue. The probe is resolved in the transfer phase, it is allowed to leave before combat. It is possible you have it in the movement phase which is after combat.