Your word means 'Fail'. Given he never employed it in combat - that means two things - he either couldn't perform Force/Life Drain at all or if he did and never used it in combat that shows his poor skills with it. I would choose the first and not the second - because that further proves Sidious' hype getting more and more unreliable.
Originally posted by Galan007
The DE Sourcebook attributes it to his "dark side skill":
1. Sourcebooks are merely interpretation of events on author's part and since Palpatine never used it in combat, I take it with a grain of salt.
2. It's funny that in the context - it also mentioned Byss. I read the Dark Empire comics, and I'm pretty sure it was stated that he had a deep-rooted connection with the planet itself/or the people. And that those Dark Side energies were leeching off people's lifeforce and, in turn, transfer it to Palpatine.
There is a black-white comic where Palpatine states that the drain of Byss was not attributed to his use of Life-Drain, but with the Force bond he established with the Byss people. And given he is a Dark Side nexus - his presence would leech off their lifeforce. IIRC, it was where he presents Byss to Darth Vader.
Palpatine: Their lifeforce feeds me even now.
Whatever...
Either way, Palpatine's hype is getting slowly under. 💃
"Other examples are Exar Kun, the Dark Lord in the time of the Great Sith War, who harnessed Sith and Jedi artifacts on Yavin 4 to enhance his power and drain the entire Massassi species, so that his spirit could endure for more than four thousands of years in the Great Temple;[6] and Galactic Emperor Palpatine, who fed off the inhabitants of his retreat world of Byss collectively with his Dark Side Adepts, although those unfortunates were drained slowly, over a long period of time, rather than consuming the whole world at once.[9] During the Disciples of Ragnos crisis, some of the New Reborn were able to use Force drain as well." ( wookieepdia)
Originally posted by victreebelvictr
"Other examples are Exar Kun, the Dark Lord in the time of the Great Sith War, who harnessed Sith and Jedi artifacts on Yavin 4 to enhance his power and drain the entire Massassi species, so that his spirit could endure for more than four thousands of years in the Great Temple;[6] and Galactic Emperor Palpatine, who fed off the inhabitants of his retreat world of Byss collectively with his Dark Side Adepts, although those unfortunates were drained slowly, over a long period of time, rather than consuming the whole world at once.[9] During the Disciples of Ragnos crisis, some of the New Reborn were able to use Force drain as well." ( wookieepdia)
You do realize that Wookieepedia is not an official source? And they stated they are not always right.
Besides that, it just mentions the drain part not how the whole draining process was performed.
This, really, means nothing.