World Persistence, flat files v/s DB v/s ??

[Ben Greear]

I'm contemplating a space based game, where once started, it will
never again resemble it's starting state (unless the starting world
image is saved of course.)  It will be written in Java.


The game will need to update it's persistant storage very often
to make this feasible. 

In my current game, I use ascii based flat files.  I don't think
this will work so well for the space game.

The two things I'm pondering now are binary flat files (one per object,
a collection of objects?? I dunno) or a database.

I'm a little concerned about the performance hit on a DB, as I expect
this game server to bring a machine to it's knees anyway...

I'd be interested to hear any suggestions you might have..

Also, as a java server, I don't think I can do a select on incomming
data.  I think a thread for every player is a bit much...any suggestions
here?

Ben Greear (greear at cyberhighway.net)  http://www.primenet.com/~greear 
Author of ScryMUD:  mud.primenet.com 4444
http://www.primenet.com/~greear/ScryMUD/scry.html