English speaking communities in China servers?

VPN
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English speaking communities in China servers ?

Well, the title saids it all. I recently moved to China, wanted to try out FF14 but the game is completely in Chinese unable to change the text to English. I just downloaded the game, able to guess my way around to level 5. I know I’ll hit a road block sooner or later for not being able to understand what it’s saying.

I tired using VPN to try NA / JP servers but the “Great firewall in China” doesn’t allow so. The download itself will take 20-25 hours that’s if it doesn’t disconnect.

So, was hoping if there a community that’s speak English and is playing in these servers.

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There’s a guy in the novice network recently on my server playing from China, he tried a bunch of VPNs and settled on lonlife I think it was. JP region server, so English client works fine.

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I know some artists that play on CN servers, they and their friends speak English and were wishing for an EN language ver. in the CN client, so there’s definitely some groups out there. But uhm afaik, you can use any client in China, as long as you have your SE acc set up beforehand. E.g. I have an EU acc and since last year the client works (without vpn) in china when I was there for a short time. In 2017 I did a longer exchange year and back then you had to use vpn to access the client. Ping is high, around 200~260ish. The thing about ffxiv in China is that it’s kinda iffy, I often feel like it changes a lot, sometimes things work great sometimes it doesnt. Btw in 2017 I also downloaded the whole game from some hotel wifi (lmao) and it was truly a mad adventure. Took about 3 days with the low internet speed :joy: The trick with the client is to manually click “stop”, the client will automatically pick up from where it last ended (if you don’t and the download breaks up, I think it doesn? Not sure how it is right now) As I said, it was a mad time. Mogstation is an entirely different issue too. I think due to security reasons (?) you cannot proceed any payments from a chinese ID, so I had to use a VPN, set to the country of my SE acc, to proceed any payments. That goes for paying with paypal AS WELL AS redeeming time cards :joy: (this means that even if you brought a timecard code, you couldn’t redeem it via mogstation unless your IP is set to the country of your SE account). I think back then I just asked friends at home to buy me gametime and changed pw later. Also if something is blocked, try again in a few days after the Holidays, maybe websites will be easier/more accesable then.

Anyhow tldr: NA/EU/JP accounts work from China, but ping might be high, mogstation payments might be inconvenient. However my info might be outdated since I haven’t been there for over a year. If you want to find some EN friends I can ask my aquaintance if they have some EN speaking LS. I’ve never played on CN servers myself but CN version is currently hyped bc ShB releases next week! also Urianger’s cn voice is hot stuff

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I lived and worked in China for 5 years, and played this game for most of the time I was there.

If you ever plan on moving out of China then you should consider getting the international (JP, NA, EU) version, and get Ionlife (VPN) to play outside of the Great Firewall. Reason is that the Chinese servers is separate on its own so if you plan on moving out you will have to leave everything behind and start over.

Note that purchasing items on MogStation with a VPN will trigger errors so you may want to time your purchases when you are not in China. Linking your credit card for autobilling didn’t trigger anything while I was there at least, so paying subs should be fine. You can always contact SE customer support if you encounter issues at any rate.

Download the free trial from Square Enix (make sure it’s NA as you’re from the States), set up an account on MogStation. If everything is fine till this step, then you’re good to begin your adventure!

If not because you are accessing MogStation via a VPN, then you will have to get a friend or family member Stateside to set things up for you. It will also mean that you will need to rely on them to purchase the full game and expansions when you are ready to fully dive into this game.

The Japan Datacentres (Elemental, Gaia, Mana) are the ones you should make a character on due to proximity and thus better ping - you will also be able to make characters on EU and NA DCs, and make character transfers.

Tonberry server on Elemental DC is the capital of the English-speaking players, however it is almost always locked for character creation, thus Kujata server, also on Elemental DC, have begun to host overspills. With the World Visit system, you will be able to zone to another server within your DC, so the only thing you will miss out from not being on Tonberry would be being in a Free Company (guild) from Tonberry.

You will also find a smattering of English-speaking players across Gaia and Mana DCs - I myself am located on Masamune server, Mana DC.

Hope this helps.

EDIT: Added more information.

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I’m a Chinese who played in CH server before. If you need help you can message me. But I recommend you to use the JP server. There’re many Chinese players who play in JP server. You can use VPN service to play in JP server. There won’t be network lagging problem between CH and JP. When I played CH server from US, the ping is more than two hundred.

By the way, CH server is still in Stromblood. Shadowbringer will be updated on Oct. 11.

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I have been working in mainland China for over a year and still actively playing FFXIV daily on Crystal. The trick is not using the VPN but use the “game speeder/遊戲加速器”. My latency is around 170m which is enough for nearly all top-end content except perhaps Eden 4.0 and Ultimate raids.

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Heh sorry to say but your stuck. China hates freedom with a passion.

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Thanks for the info.

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Also, like you said. It’ll be very inconvenient if I were to play other servers in China. I’ll keep giving the Chinese servers a try. I started the download yesterday, the client itself is still in Chinese, the patch I think is still in “Stormblood”. Either way this doesn’t effect me, cause I don’t know anything about the game. Just not being able to talk to anyone, or having to “YouTube” “Wiki” the basics is frustrating.

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But, Please if you know anyone that plays in CN that speaks English. Please refer them to me, I’ll join their server if I can.

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Thanks for the info. I’ll see what I can do on my side, I can probably go to Hong Kong download the NA version, then run a VPN when I go back to China.

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Judging by the answers from Mewp, and Uldah. The answer is yes, but the VPN might cause lag issues.

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Yeah, I already know that it’s behind patches. That’s not a big issue, since I just started the game. (Brand new to it). Are you still palying in CH servers? or JP?

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It’d be better to get a non chinese account, current expansion is shadowbringers, stormblood is previous expansion. Chinese ver is behind on patches and separate from rest of servers, so not sure what you mean by vpning to other servers.

It matters what data center you’re using first, then using a vpn to possibly get more stable connection.

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I will ask them :slight_smile:

However like someone pointed out, keep in mind that chinese servers are NOT linked to international version. So when you leave China you will still have to play on chinese servers. Or start a complete new account

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I asked my friend. They’re on Chocobo (陆行鸟), but it’s currently locked. They suggested for you to play on international version with a vpn bc the client is very text heavy.

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Since you undoubtedly already have a VPN, you can try and download the free trial from Square Enix and set up your account on MogStation. If it works, then you will be able to play immediately, subject to getting Ionlife of course, specifically for playing.

If you find that you do indeed like the game and would like to buy the full game, you can then use your trip to Hong Kong to purchase and download the full version before returning to China. This should save you some time.

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I’ve transferred to NA server because of the ping issue. But I have an account in CH and will occasionally log on to keep my house. Which data center are you in now? Maybe I can find someone who is able to speak English to help you.

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Just make sure yo live for the party and maby you can get better internet privileges.

Bad situation. This is a joke btw.

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I’ll give the “Chinese server” another try. Since it’s more convenient. My reading of Chinese sucks, so hopefully I can find a clan/guild (whatever it’s called in this game). That is fluent in English.

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I started on a new server that just came out 2 days ago. I’m not sure what you mean by data center. There 2 servers, I’m on the second one, and the newest channel “龙” Dragon something.