What does the red cover symbol with a lightning bolt mean?

[Giant Space Hamster]

At first I thought it meant the position was exposed to some enemy from some angle, but there are times when the only enemies are clearly on the opposite side of the cover direction and this symbol still shows. What does it mean?

[Wisak]

That you are technically not in cover. You are just behind it. There is an action to take cover.

[Rhett]

Actually it means you're standing too high for the cover. You may need to crouch or prone to see the actual cover indicator change.

[Giant Space Hamster]

Ah, so there is no bonus difference for high and low cover, you just need to be crouching for low cover to be effective while you can stand behind high cover.

[Giant Space Hamster]

Now the "stance down" and "stance up" move options make more sense too, they allow you to see what cover will be effective before committing the action.

[FieserMoep]

With elevation and cover height it is basically possible to stand up, blast and duck back. This makes some of the early fights really easy depending on terrain as you are basically invulnerable for as long as the enemy has no explosives or can flank you. I assume a lot of people who struggle are not using cover properly and treat it like XCOM cover or rely on armor and HP which is not a good idea.

[EliteForceQc]

i thought it was a "destructible" cover in red.

[FieserMoep]

That can't be it. Got blue cover behind stuff that blew up if I remember correctly.