[MUD-Dev] World Persistence, flat files v/s DB v/s ??

[Joel Dillon]

On Sat, 21 Mar 1998, Ben Greear wrote:

> 
> 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.
> 
  I've been thinking along these lines (a non-resetable mud) except
I'm using C++.
 
> The game will need to update it's persistant storage very often
> to make this feasible. 

  How often is very often? Wouldn't a backup and save to disk every
half-hour or so be ok?

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

  Well, it depends on what sort of machine spec you have, but I'd
have thought ASCII flat files wouldn't be a big problem as long as
you load all the data into memory when the server starts up

> 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?

  What's wrong with that? Threads aren't too expensive. Unless you're
anticipating literally thousands of simultaneous players you should be
fine.

	Jo