[LGM]

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
My italics. That's the issue. A ship, a WP, even a troop, is a single 'hard' target. You have to hit it directly with a concentrated attack. Facilities are less 'hard' but at least fairly localized. You can see/scan the location of a mine, factory, research lab and bLast it.

Population is a whole other thing. People are not likely to be in one convenient location unless, as Geo points out, the colony is a hostile atmosphere type and everyone has to live in domes. So it's just not realistic to be able to wipe the slate clean on a populated planet with DUCs or even APBs or any other beam weapons.[/QB]

The Baron has a good point, weapons should probably be unable to clear a world. The population drop should have diminishing returns with no affect to 1 million. To completely wipe out a population would require poisoning the environment (overheat the atmosphere, introduce a lethal chemical in the air or eco system, excessive radition). Of course these weapons would have lingering effects making the planet useless outside of domes.