I would like acq to be 6 vs 6 or 8 vs 8 normally, it's too chaotic.

I like the 6v6 option. Are you open to a game type selection queue for FW?
i.e select both acquisition and both normal 16v16 FW if you are a squad that wouldn't mind being placed in either.

Honestly, I'd prefer it to be random. Normally you get skirmish but every once and a while you get thrown an acquisition match of varying size.

Removing that choice would probably assist the battle servers too. If 16 v 16 match cannot be made in X amount of time, groups are split into smaller size for Acquisition game mode.

Exactly. Faction warfare is already segregated enough that I'm against people picking their match style in it. This might also serve to break up some of the queue syncing behaviour.

Agreed however players should still have the option to queue large group 'patrols' against other patrols when that feature comes down the pipeline.

I'm really not sure about patrols. I've said quite a few times before but I essentially feel that queue-syncing is cheating via exploitation of matchmaking. Matchmaking is something that we've just recently started addressing in public contracts and I very much feel that it's something that needs some working on too.

So I'm pretty sure that almost anyone who plays faction warfare is aware of a massive negative feedback loop, where people see a 00:00 timer and don't queue, which means that the timer doesn't go away, which causes more people to not queue. I've seen a number of people raise the idea that instead of this timer being displayed, they should just put a 'number of people in queue' instead and I don't think that would actually do anything to address the negative feedback loop. Once a single match for the day is generated though, these issues seem to clear up.

I think the only 'meaningful' way of addressing the issue with getting faction warfare 'started' is to instead allow it to generate matches without 'full' teams and I think the best way of doing this is to allow faction warfare matchmaking AI to generate the occasional acquisition match that ranges from 6v6 to 12v12 or even the full 16v16. There's a number of upsides to this, in that it breaks up the relative tediousness present in faction warfare (most matches are won in a few minutes because of how easy it is to remain defensive in skirmish) and due to the removal of clone counts it allows new players in starter fits (or players who've earned their apex suits) to throw endless waves of clones at their opposition without feeling bad about wasting clones or money. It also allows for a method of throwing people who've been in a queue for a LONG time into matches.

Now, I don't think acquisition is perfect at the moment, nor would this by some measure miraculously fix faction warfare but it would be an improvement to the game mode and it would potentially allow a single group to 'start' faction warfare early in the day because it drops the 'entry' number from 32 down to as little as twelve. If it meant people would start queueing early in the day, I'd happily play a match or two for the gallente or minmatar.

Hell I'd even be okay playing 'lopsided' matches of 6v8-12 if scotty went "wait, you've been fighting and winning all day, we're going to throw you a curveball and put your single squad against a whole bunch of randoms to clear the queue".