Which pack should I buy?

[イザニア]

Hello, I'm from Malaysia planning to play this game, since steam doesn't support ffxiv in my country, I need to buy from retail but i don't know which pack should i buy. anyone can help me?
and also i would like to know which region most of the Malaysian players plays.

[Pocahawtness]

OK, firstly I can't comment on regions, but I can say that ideally you want the Online Complete Edition. That gives you everything.

[c0ndu]

Complete edition. It contains FFXIV base game + Stormblood pack(all expansions including the last one). Other than that you don't need anything. BTW this game is P2P, meaning you have to SUB monthly (aprox 11 EUR).

[イザニア]

no. please do not suggest complete edition because im just a starter to this game.

[theCarthaginian]

Originally posted by Raiza Mea:

no. please do not suggest complete edition because im just a starter to this game.

It doesn't matter - to access all the game, you have to have the expansions.
Play the 30 day trial.
If you like it enough (and you will), you are better off to buy it all at once. You are looking at a couple extra months worth of subs in price difference to buy it all piece by piece.

[Oberon]

Originally posted by Raiza Mea:

no. please do not suggest complete edition because im just a starter to this game.

If you're just starting out you don't need the expansions at all, just the base game will do for now. When you're getting close to level 50, and you're sure you want to stick around, that's when you should buy Stormblood.

[Moscini]

Originally posted by The Mayor of Murder Town:

Originally posted by Raiza Mea:

no. please do not suggest complete edition because im just a starter to this game.

If you're just starting out you don't need the expansions at all, just the base game will do for now. When you're getting close to level 50, and you're sure you want to stick around, that's when you should buy Stormblood.

Yes please, don't push a new player to go all in right from the start.

[Ser SwampMonyetz]

maybe u'll get faster respond from fellow malaysian here
https://forum.lowyat.net/FinalFantasyXIV

as for myself
bought the base game thru frens from brunei
and bought the expansion from zpayless
activated both game w/o problem

regarding which server u should play
i think u can try go for masamune

[Asphe]

Originally posted by Raiza Mea:

Hello, I'm from Malaysia planning to play this game, since steam doesn't support ffxiv in my country, I need to buy from retail but i don't know which pack should i buy. anyone can help me?
and also i would like to know which region most of the Malaysian players plays.

What VERSION?

I understand that both the NA and EU versions are available in your country but Singapore is actually considered part of the NA region [recently added, together with Hong Kong / Macau / etc] so in terms of what region version of the game, you might prefer to buy the NA version. If Malaysia ever gets officially supported... you'd think they put MY in the NA region.

You can also buy directly from https://store.na.square-enix.com/final-fantasy-xiv or https://www.amazon.com/ [save some money and get only the digital versions]. Looking at the prices at the online stores in your country... seems as if they are just marking up / reselling the boxes, charging extra to import the physical boxes.

-----

Which SERVER?

Malaysian players would typically be playing on JPN servers due to the similar timezones. The 'peak' time of maximum number of players online would be the same for most players in the region.

The unofficial 'english' servers are Tonberry [non-Legacy, also by far the highest % of 'english' speakers, probably above 50%] and Masamune [Legacy server, about 10% english or less]. It's unlikely that you can create a character on Tonberry unless you want to pay $USD18 for a World Transfer.

Another alternative is Sargatanas in the NA datacenter. It has a high percentage of players from the Pacific Rim area as well, including the ANZAC countries.

You can go to https://arrstatus.com/ to get the IP addresses to ping.

Using a proxy located in your area:

ping -t 124.150.157.29 [Masamune]
=> 85ms ~ 350ms. Seems like your country's sole ISP doesn't know how to efficiently route traffic. A dozen IP ranges and only three of them will get you sub 100ms

ping -t 204.2.229.94 [Sargatanas]
=> 185ms ~ 300ms. Despite the greater number of 'hops', this route has less packet loss "usually"

-----

Free-Trial

http://freetrial.finalfantasyxiv.com

Do the free-trial first. It'll walk you through the process of creating a 'Square Enix account'. Take your time and do this carefully. [If you screw up, just restart the whole thing ^_^].

Recruit-A-Friend / Free Stuff

Another thing to look at is http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/special/friend_recruit/

Ideally, you'd get a friend code from someone on the same server. That way both of you benefit [some of the freebies only work among players on the same server]. If you can't wait or can't be bothered, you can use S656PUHU

Note that you only get the free stuff once you've added 'game time' or paid for a subscription. i.e. there's no hurry.

-----

Which Free Company / Guild / Clan?

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/forums/668

Go there and click on the World you're interested in. Pretty easy to tell which are the two most active 'english' worlds ^_^.

[イザニア]

Originally posted by Asphe:

Originally posted by Raiza Mea:

Hello, I'm from Malaysia planning to play this game, since steam doesn't support ffxiv in my country, I need to buy from retail but i don't know which pack should i buy. anyone can help me?
and also i would like to know which region most of the Malaysian players plays.

What VERSION?

I understand that both the NA and EU versions are available in your country but Singapore is actually considered part of the NA region [recently added, together with Hong Kong / Macau / etc] so in terms of what region version of the game, you might prefer to buy the NA version. If Malaysia ever gets officially supported... you'd think they put MY in the NA region.

You can also buy directly from https://store.na.square-enix.com/final-fantasy-xiv or https://www.amazon.com/ [save some money and get only the digital versions]. Looking at the prices at the online stores in your country... seems as if they are just marking up / reselling the boxes, charging extra to import the physical boxes.

-----

Which SERVER?

Malaysian players would typically be playing on JPN servers due to the similar timezones. The 'peak' time of maximum number of players online would be the same for most players in the region.

The unofficial 'english' servers are Tonberry [non-Legacy, also by far the highest % of 'english' speakers, probably above 50%] and Masamune [Legacy server, about 10% english or less]. It's unlikely that you can create a character on Tonberry unless you want to pay $USD18 for a World Transfer.

Another alternative is Sargatanas in the NA datacenter. It has a high percentage of players from the Pacific Rim area as well, including the ANZAC countries.

You can go to https://arrstatus.com/ to get the IP addresses to ping.

Using a proxy located in your area:

ping -t 124.150.157.29 [Masamune]
=> 85ms ~ 350ms. Seems like your country's sole ISP doesn't know how to efficiently route traffic. A dozen IP ranges and only three of them will get you sub 100ms

ping -t 204.2.229.94 [Sargatanas]
=> 185ms ~ 300ms. Despite the greater number of 'hops', this route has less packet loss "usually"

-----

Free-Trial

http://freetrial.finalfantasyxiv.com

Do the free-trial first. It'll walk you through the process of creating a 'Square Enix account'. Take your time and do this carefully. [If you screw up, just restart the whole thing ^_^].

Recruit-A-Friend / Free Stuff

Another thing to look at is http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/special/friend_recruit/

Ideally, you'd get a friend code from someone on the same server. That way both of you benefit [some of the freebies only work among players on the same server]. If you can't wait or can't be bothered, you can use S656PUHU

Note that you only get the free stuff once you've added 'game time' or paid for a subscription. i.e. there's no hurry.

-----

Which Free Company / Guild / Clan?

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/forums/668

Go there and click on the World you're interested in. Pretty easy to tell which are the two most active 'english' worlds ^_^.

wow, really helpful. thanks