No, I mean there are three components. No subtlety at *all*, but it works.
The reason I did it like that was the Prototypes. They're there to give the player an idea of what he'll get when he researches a field, and they actually show up before that's researched.
Say, Laser Weapons:
Research Physics 1, and you get Laser Weapons tech area and the Prototype Laser.
Research Laser Weapons and the prototype goes up to the next level, and the standard laser becomes available.
I could probably do a similar effect with mounts, but I haven't tried that. The tricky part is getting them to respect the level formulas.
By saving designs, I mean do this:
Make a hull. Cram one of every component that fits onto it. Copy that hull and lay it out as you like when the time comes. It actually won't work as I was hoping, because you couldn't add additional old components to it.