Are you referring to the space sim X4: Foundations? If so, then yeah you kind of get this. It's a space sim first and foremost, but it has an empire and fleet manager wrapped around it. So yes, you build stations and buy ships to work for those stations, which you will be able to watch as they go about their business. Not to mention everyone else's fleets.
It's a superb sandbox. The whole series is excellent really buy X4 is definitely the best yet. To put things in perspective, imagine DW2 but you're permanently in one of the ships of your fleet (this can be any ship you own or even spacewalking). So you still manage an empire but you do it from first person, although you will spend a lot of time looking at the map - it gives a bird's eye view plus that's where all the management menus are.
I strongly recommend it, just remember there's the space sim element to it too, there's no getting away from that.