Just to offer an idea of whether my categorizations made any sense, here are the specific assignments I made for Ranger. (Note: These aren’t all changes in each release -- just the ones for Rangers.)
Publish 1.0You're free to question any of these categorizations, of course. I'm under no illusion that everyone would agree with the way I did things -- my only assertion is that I think I came close enough to good objectivity and accurate assessment to make these numbers generally useful.
Add Mod Fix
1 Missions: New Artisan, Entertainer and Explorer mission terminals
Publish 2.0
Add Mod Fix
1 Fixed an involuntary PvP exploit with /rescue
1 The cost to craft camps has been increased
1 Each scout in a group with loot permissions may harvest from a corpse
1 Harvested group kills yield 60% their normal resources and XP
1 Fishing now grants Wilderness Survival XP for catching fish
1 Camp XP accumulation rates have been increased
1 Scouts now get survival XP for crafting camps and traps
1 Base equation for maskscent changed to check on maskscent skill mod
1 Delay to mask scent again now reduces as maskscent skill mod increases
1 Much more likely to successfully maskscent if prone, slightly less likely if running
1 XP rewards for maskscent have been lowered, given that success rates have increased
1 Increased cost of some Ranger skills because they were too low
1 New Ranger command: /conceal -- apply high quality camouflage to himself and others
1 Ranger's ability to see the special attacks of creatures via examine has been fixed
1 Ranger's Field Bioscience skill tree has been renamed Tracking
1 New Ranger Ability: /areatrack -- local clues help determine identity of nearby creatures
Publish 2.6
Add Mod Fix
1 Restored creature resource harvesting to previous levels
1 Ranger areatrack: no longer lists you when you look for players
1 Ranger areatrack: has a much shorter delay in returning results
1 Ranger areatrack: displays non unique NPC names correctly
1 Ranger areatrack: displays the 50 closest results in crowded areas
1 Ranger areatrack: no longer displays items with an invalid distance of -1m
1 Ranger areatrack: ignores pets and vendors
Publish 3.0
Add Mod Fix
1 The flora component of camo kits has been removed
1 Camo kits now yield more uses and have a wider experimentation range
1 Camo kits now work properly when crafted in a factory
1 The duration for conceal has been fixed, it was half what it should have been
1 Notification when a creature begins to stalk them
1 Non-aggro creatures will not attack you when mask scent or conceal breaks
1 Aggro creatures only attack when maskscent or conceal breaks within 40 meters
1 Fixed creatures breaking maskscent/conceal when scout/ranger leaves interest radius
Publish 4.0
Add Mod Fix
1 Crafting camo kits no longer requires flora components
Publish 5.0
Add Mod Fix
1 Mask scent and conceal no longer break in combat
Publish 6.0
Add Mod Fix
1 Fixed Level display when Ranger/Scout examines a crafted pet
1 Players can now milk certain herbivores
1 You must be scent masked or concealed to milk
Publish 7.0
Add Mod Fix
1 Fix to show a creature to show as tamable if it is ever possible for a baby to be spawned
1 Fixed Level display when Ranger/Scout examines a crafted pet
Publish 8.0
Add Mod Fix
1 Fixed a problem where traps could not be thrown indoors
TOTALS
Add Mod Fix
5 23 12 = 40 total changes
As I said, anyone who think I'm cooking the numbers or just boneheaded in my categorizations is totally free to put together their own analysis!
As to your specific objections: I can't disagree with any of them. High-quality camps are indeed one of the key abilities of Rangers, and are now considerably less useful after the new features given to other professions.
It's a shame that Scouts and Rangers don't have abilities allowing them to play a more useful role in SWG -- especially roles with a real Star Wars flavor.
