Rockboy is correct, because we don't know the angle relative to the spawner, because the spawner can be x distance away and y deep. So we need to use trilateration or multilateration. Trilateration is what rockboy described, and like he said, it's counterproductive because it would take more effort than hit and miss. But, with multilateration it should be possible, which is finding out the relative position by measuring the differences in distance, which you already do to some point when you try to find people in the mining world. Multilateration is basically what you do when you try to find spawners, you get the distance, you move a little, then you get the distance again, if it's smaller, it's in that direction, if it's bigger it's in the other, if there's too little change in distance, try another direction than the first 2, if that's getting farther away, you go back in another direction. While trilateration is ineffective when you need to walk/fly distances, it become incredibly effective when you can instantly warp to fixed points. What you can do is set up homes in a grid pattern, say, 200 blocks away from each other, (you need a lot of homes) and then home1, /near + saving coordinates, wait 10 seconds, /near + saving coordinates, home2, /near + saving coordinates, etc. And you can map out a bunch of people pretty quickly and efficiently. The only problem I may find is the limitation of the macro mod scripting language (too bad it's a homemade language instead of javascript/whatever scripting libraries EDIT: You can minimize the guessing range by assuming everything is done from coordinate y30, so if you issue the command /near at y60,then you need to remove 30 from the distance to even out the distance a little more, this way you don't have to worry much about a 3d environment, and you can figure out close approximate coordinates in a 2d environment. seeing as underground is between 64 and 0, by using the coordinate from y30, you can minimize the potential height difference between the users, because if the user is 50 blocks underground, or 5 blocks underground can make a 45 block difference, making your trilateration accurate within 45 blocks minimum, so it can be way higher too. But if you set the y to 30 and go from there, it's only 20 blocks down to the 50 blocks undeground, and 30 blocks up to the 5 below ground, this means the accuracy of your trilateration is within 30 blocks, this is 15 blocks less. This is me at 3am and not being able to sleep
To everyone a bit confused and disagreeing with the cause: It is a lot easier to make money now than it ever has been, and XP prices used to be $6,000 back when it was harder to make money. Yes, prices of materials are going down but efficiency and the amount of those minerals has drastically increased.
Ahh, but we are HELPING the "lower and middle class" (as you put it). We are trying to stabilize the xp market so that when builders and residents use spawners to get xp, their xp is worth more and they are able to climb the ranks faster. We are making their tools worth more, and helping make the anvil combo market and enchanted books real markets again. It seems that people complain when prices are too low "Pumpkins need to be higher.", and the same people complain when the price is too high "XP prices are too high." We are trying to prevent a further division of the classes which would occur if there was no xp market, since builders and residents would have this taken away from them to earn something. We are trying to make jobs and let xp be something that is worth something. Better us to regulate it, than andrew. We have seen what happens when andrew is forced to regulate things. By that time things are usually too far gone for a small fix. Honestly, trust your benevolent overlords; We are here to help.
You obviously haven't been on the server long enough to realize how bad the market for exp has been, and its influence on enchanted armor and tools, as well as anviling services. What Emau said is absolutely right, what we are doing is for the benefit of the lower and middle class not opposed to it.
Then you will be making 5k/hour or less without enchanted tools. The enchanted tools pay for themselves so quickly, even at increased prices.
_TANSTAAFL If you see a few people in the mining world that you think are at spawners, and your busy doing something, you could always assign me to find them. (Because of your 49 homes in the mining world)
