Sometimes the objectives aren’t clear enough about whether you’re actually attacking or defending something
For example when your team is supposed to blow something up, and you aren’t playing soldier, your objective will be “Guard the ______”. That sounds very much like defending. It would be much more clear if the objective was “Destroy the _____”. Maybe “Help destroy the _____” if you aren’t the correct class to actually plant the explosive. Same goes for hack and repair objectives
ye i agree with this, your a medic, and a soldier needs to be blow some gate, the ojective says defend this, even if theres no bomb planted, wich is confusing.
The other day I was playing medic and actually ran around healing as they hacked the objective because I had a lapse in judgement and forgot that "defend this. " can still mean your on offense if you are not the class for the objective. Therefore, I’m with you on this one.
I fully agree. And a new player often doesnt even recognize the difference between guard and defend in the discribtion. Just explained this to someone in another forum.
And for myself, I still cant tell the difference between the symbols if theres any.
Yea lol, I got it wrong a few times aswell 
The objective was “Guard the ____*” so I thought I was defending it.
Why not make it “Clear the ___" or "Help destroy the ___”
I think it’s referring to cover the area for the soldier to plant.
As a 24/7 soldier, I find it a lot easier to plant when an area is secure rather than getting lit up like a Christmas Tree…
[QUOTE=KAS–Will;317013]I think it’s referring to cover the area for the soldier to plant.
As a 24/7 soldier, I find it a lot easier to plant when an area is secure rather than getting lit up like a Christmas Tree…[/QUOTE]
Yes it refers to that, but not obviously. I mean, you would Guard the SOLDIER then, right? Not the door he has to blow up 
It’s just not literal, that’s all. Like, imagine if the game highlighted the door as the objective, and said, “Secure the Area”, you’d think it’s capture the flag. My reason for thinking, it’s better to just say “Guard the Door” is because if you protect the door, thinking either the enemy is trying to take it or your team, your ultimately killing anything that gets near it. Where as on the other hand, you’d probably think your capturing… then again you’d only think that if your an idiot/noob…
But seriously, What do you want the objectives to say? Because I’m getting the impression, you’d like it state the objective and give a sub title for WHY.
IE: Soldier Plant a HE Charge (available only to soldier; move to the door and hold the USE Key) on the door, that the Resistance (your enemies) are using to to keep the ‘bot’ to move up to the container, containing the Vaccine, which is the ultimate goal of the mission.
On a more serious note:
When you bring up the objective wheel, it already tells you, what’s needed (IE a demolition icon, obviously a soldiers task), then says simply “Plant the HE Charge” then it even adverts the camera towards the location where the HE charge goes.
I’ve been thinking about this too, and I agree - I prefer the ET:QW way of always showing the primary objective, not a class-specific interpretation of it. This is mostly because I don’t fully know the maps yet - but still, it’s the clearest way of describing what needs to be done next, especially for newer players.
I really don’t think a class-specific objective description helps any more people than it hinders, personally. If you have a team of completely new players, and there are no Operatives - what use is directing those other classes to “guard” something that needs hacking, instead of simply telling them that something needs hacking? 
“We’re guarding the security terminal!”. Really? For what reason?
Agree, got it wrong a few times myself, very confusing. Unless you know the map you have to just guess.
Maybe this partially explains the apparent sheeplike behaviour by some players - if someone is clueless as to where to go/ what to do, the easiest thing would be to follow the nearest players (spamming buffs for xp).
I agree too. I find it much more confusing than it was in ETQW. The voice overs e.g. “They’re hacking the objective!” helped a lot and the mission list was much less ambiguous. Yes, I haven’t played many hours yet, but I do feel it should be made more clear what is going on. Also, when a primary objective is completed it, the screen just fades to the cut scene. What happened? Did they hack something? Oh, we won… Makes me feel like a moron!
Another way is to visit a command post, and look for the class highlighted in yellow. Although this is handy because it also refills your ammo - you aren’t always close to a command post when the need to switch arises, and it’s a bloody clunky solution if it IS intended to be used like that True, if you need to change class, you do need to visit a CP anyway - but if you don’t need to change class, you shouldn’t have to visit the CP just to figure out the current objective. The closest CP could also be in enemy hands, tempting a suicide simply to ensure you’re the right class.
It’s another example of something that worked so well in ET:QW, and has been changed for the worse - you can kind of see what SD were trying to achieve (simpler instructions for newer players?), but in the process they’ve made it un-intuitive for everyone else. And in fact, haven’t really helped the newer players either…
imo this has been the most disruptive aspect to the game flow in pubs. definitely should be a priority for all platforms. please reword the objectives for clear understanding.
This. Its a very small issue with a very big impact. Just change the words. Gameplay stays and everyone knows what to do 
How about -
Offense :
“Support [soldiers/engineers/operatives] while they [destroy/repair/hack] the objective”
Defence :
“Prevent enemy [soldiers/engineers/operatives] from [destroying/repairing/hacking] the objective”
Clear enough? Too wordy?
Probably too wordy, given the size of the UI element in question (it has to scroll the text already) - but I like the idea of including the required class name in there, which ET:QW didn’t do. That caters for players who don’t know which class does which main objective.
EDIT: mmmm, cheese on toast
This is what I’ve noticed:
On Offense, they seem to use the word Guard as a keyword meaning that you are assisting at doing the objective (by securing the area), but you can’t directly perform the primary objective. It therefore implies that you could switch classes. The icon seems to indicate what class you are assisting, no need to go to the CP if you just want the information.
On Defense, it seems the word Defend is used for both primary and assisting classes. So you may not be aware that your current class can’t undo the progress being done on the objective (eg: un-hack). But again, the icon says what you are defending against.
I’d like something along these lines…
If you’re the proper class:
“Blow up the pillar,” “Hack the controls,” “Repair the Crane”
If you’re another class:
“Help blow up the pillar,” “Help hack the control box,” “Help repair the crane”
If you’re on the other team:
“Guard the pillar,” “guard the control box,” “Keep the crane from being repaired”