Seconded (thirded?).
Some comparisons of how a simple task (building a laser-armed scout ship) work in various 4x space games:
Imperium Galactica: Choose "Build", choose "Scout".
Master of Orion 2: Choose "Design", choose Scout Hull, choose Laser Cannon. Construct design at any planet.
Space Empires V: Research Energy to get Laser Cannon module, research construction to get Scout Hull, research propulsion to get Engine module.
Go into ship designer and place however many modules you want in the hull (within the limits set by the hull class). Build final design at any planet with a shipyard.
Aurora: Commit an energy weapons researcher to researching Infrared Laser and/or an increased Laser Focal Size technology. Also, have a Sensors researcher researching whatver kinds of sensors you want. And an engine research researching engine technologies (propulsion type, fuel efficiency, power/efficiency ratio differentials. Optionally, have a Defensive Systems researcher researching lower thermal signatures.
Once all this research is complete, go into tech designer, and design the individual laser cannon (tweaking focal size, spectrum type, capacitor recharge rate, and miniturization level). Design the engine (balancing a whole variety of factors). Design active sensor suite and passive EM and thermal sensors. Then research all these designed components.
THEN go into the ship designer, and stick all your components together. Unlike most every other 4x that constrains your designs by "hull slots" within defined ship classes, you are fettered only by the laws of Aurora physics. Want to build a 400,000-ton "scout" behemoth with 1000 laser cannons? You can. But at early levels of tech development, your behmoth is going to take 50 years to build, require a crew of tens of thousands, consume more minerals than you have on Earth, and will travel slower than the average commercial tugboat.
Once you've arrived at a design that you're happy with (balancing the needed components, overall weight, speed, armor protection, maintenance duration, fuel range, etc.) you find a shipyard with the appropriate type (Civil or Military) and a sufficient capacity for that weight of ship. Then you tool the yard for that design (or retool if you already had a design in place), and commence to building. If you're smart and have the extra industrial capacity available, you build most of the components before you build the ship, to speed up construction. Then you actually start building (and name your ship). Anywhere from a few months to several years later, your ship is done.
It's a much more realistic model of ship construction--often by the time your vessels are complete, they're partially obsolete. And there's enough time for things to happen to change the mission requirements of your design.