We know that the bots are broken, and I have heard that the "faction/standing" system has problems. But it seems that there are problems with the "ranking" system as well. I recently passed the Lv 7 Combat test and shortly after that, the Lv 7 Light Weapons test. In BOTH cases I received no additional ships, weapons or other equipment. Today, I did two Trading missions, and according to the mission computer was given a total of about 810 points. It appears that none of these points were "credited" to my "account." Am I mistaken, or is everything sort of deteriorating?

The bots are indeed broken. A fix has been prepared, but it will be released as part of the new universe patch coming up very shortly. It would slow the devs down to release it as a separate patch.

The ranking/faction/standing system was the chief feature of the last major update and it was clearly stated at the time that the feature was rudimentary at best and in need of bugtesting (which is why so much time was needed to level up and get the goods) It has not deteriorated in the least, it simply is not fully implemented yet.

I'm not certain what, if anything, happened to your 810 points. Did you exit the client by docking or using ESC? Please keep an eye on that and bug report if you can observe times when you are not creddited. Have you tried /updatestation and then checked the menu again to see if new things are available to you? I can't recall if anything is given at level 7

I almost always exit by docking. I only use "ESC" if there is a crash or some other serious event. I had tried /updatestation several times when I did not receive any "goodies." At any rate, properly quitting the game and logging back in several times (over a period of many days) should "update" the station, yes?

level 7 combat = heavy engine "need 4 in trade I think"
level 7 light = rail "if any"

cheers

Hmmmm...I got the heavy engine at 6 (combat), and the railgun at 6 (light).
Already had 6 in heavy and trade. I have heard before (in game) that the "goodies"
awarded for various levels varies greatly from player to player. This appears to be
a confirmation of that theory. So far however, I have not seen proof of the other
theory that the availability of equipment varies from station to station.... With regard to the scoring strangeness, additional tests have not yet shown an error.

well in the new universe it does depend from sector to sector ...

but before it didnt, just to complete it now ;)