Definitely.

I always research the first two levels of miniaturization fairly early, since they allow me to put Colony and Constructor modules on Tiny hulls, saving me 15 production per ship.

Later levels are important to give you enough space to put good engines on your warships. With enough speed, it takes very few ships to completely dominate the AI's airspace.

Most of your weapons and defence techs are defacto miniturization techs anyway, so you may as well research them first.

One level of miniaturization can give you one or two more weapons on a ship. And it's usually the same time to research as one level of weapon. So, I usually go up miniturization instead of weapons, so long as it's about the same time to research. When it's considerably more expensive, it's time to move up the weapons path for awhile. And if you're thinking of defense, then one level of mini can give 2-4 more defense modules. It's certainly worth it. Besides, the Hyperion Shrinker, which comes at expert (?) miniturization or thereabouts, is like getting a double-bonus. There's a good reason why the AI thinks so highly of mini techs, as it does of logistics techs. They're both invaluable.

The initial ones are cheap, so they really are no-brainer additions to your ships. However, as other people have stated, better weapon and defense techs can often give you much more mileage. I'd invest in it to a reasonable extent.

If you want engines on your ships, the benefit is incredible, though, since an engine takes half the hull on the lower miniturization levels.

Hi!

Please note miniaturization does NOT reduce the size of ship components, but increases amount of available space on ship hulls. Since the available space is bigger, components also became bigger because of the sizemod effect.

BR, Iztok

Untrue with newer versions. Size mod is now based on the ORIGINAL size of the hull pre-miniturisation, so the components never get any bigger.

Hi!

I stand corrected. Thanks for pointing that out!

BR, Iztok

O.K. Where can I upgrade my game. Everybody keeps buggin' me that I got the first version. So could somebody give me a LINK so I can get the latest version.  

If you are just DL, there is a link to the 1.4 patch file on the galciv2.com homepage as well.

whenever i cannot find a download on a website - because the website is unclear about it (which happens ALLOT), it is much quicker and easier just to open CNET and find the download there.

Thank you so much! I'm gonna go home and try it out(I had to download it at "Work").  

Why! Guess what happened. This is so pathetic. I just can't win. I burned 1.4 on a disk, took it home, and installed it. So after I installed 1.4 I tried to start galciv up. But it said I needed to activate it. All I had to do was type in my game's serial number and my E-mail. I didn't have the Internet or E-mail. So I skipped the E-mail thing. It came back and told me to do it. But I can't. Then I burned my computer and started crying. Well not really. I tried to delete 1.4 in "Add and Remove Programs" but the thing had took over my old galciv. So the only way to get rid of it is to delete galciv and reinstal it. But then I loose all my saved game files. Why does everything have to be so complicated. I'm ready to put my galciv CD in the microwave and blow it up! I hate my life.  

Ahem there should be a folder with your saves in it. You should be able to transfer them to another directory. You would be better off contacting the tech support people directly. They do have numbers emails. Much better then a forum or message board.