Miniaturization

in Interstellar Space: Genesis reflects your empire's expertise in a particular research tree that allows you to shrink the size and requirements of earlier components as well as their  cost. Miniaturization applies to both and, though is more important for the former as it permits the addition of advanced.

Take from tier 1 of Weapons tree as an example. Once you've researched any technology from tier 2 of that tree, they obtain 1 miniaturization level, 2 levels at tier 3, and so on, until the maximum of 4 levels of miniaturization are obtained at tier 5+.

For most components, the taken is reduced to: 1  = 80%, 2  = 65%, 3  = 50%, and 4  = 25%, though some components have a slower progression and can only reach 35% at the 4th level of miniaturization.

The effect is to keep older components relevant as the game progresses. That tier 4 with 14  you just researched looks nice but takes 40 ; those tier 1  now take 32/2 = 16 base, you could add the  weapon mod to it for 400% damage,  to get it up to the same 8 HP as the Polaris, and  to increase its speed, and now you have a weapon with the same 40 (16 + 16 * (100% + 25% +25%))  that does 8 * 400% = 32  and travels faster. Of course once you've progressed further and miniaturized the Polaris, the equation changes.

For, miniaturization can affect whether a particular system is worth equipping at all--25 per  may be too expensive for an , but at 6  when you reach Defense tier 5 it becomes more attractive.