How do you get ESF's to hover?

I'm being serious here. I'm a leviathan of incompetence in the Scythe, and most of the time I'm less of a fighter jet and more of a tree-seeking missile or free XP to Cry Me a Reaver guys.

So I'm looking to get better, and in that vein I have a very basic question; how do you hover? I've tried just slowing down to 50 KPH, but I sink. I've tried firing both vertical thrusters simultaneously, but I go upwards. I tried spinning (I don't know why...), and immediately crashed into a tree. I'm at a crossroads.

It's obviously possible, since I see other ESF's doing it all the time and gutting me like a fish, but I have literally no idea.

1. Purchase maxed out the hover frame.
2. Set your forward thrust to zero.
3. Make sure you yaw/pitch/roll are all level to the horizon
4. Hover

They don't perfectly hover. You have to slow down to a near stop to get the engine to fire downward, then use the vertical thrust button (spacebar) to keep them in the air. Hop on a NC or TR character so you can see your engines rotate so you can get a better idea how this works.

Tapping your space bar or the "Analog Throttle" Setting key. I forget which key is the default for Analog, but it quickly stops forward momentum and puts you in hover mode. Hover Airframe helps as well.

Press the throttle down/throttle analogue('S') key to engage hover mode. It is difficult to see a visual cue of being in hovermode in a scyth, since it has no exhaust ports unlike the reaver/mosquito.
In hover mode, you need to constantly compensate against gravity. If you do not press space, you will descend slowly to the ground.
When and how long you press space depends on the ESF, I dunno about the scyth. Try it in a reaver, it;s got the best vertical(spacebar)thrust.
Hover airframe decreases the time it takes for you to go in hovermode and also increases vertical(spacebar) thrust. This is why it's almost always recommended.
Try practicing in VR training untill you get the hang of it.

On default keybindings, hold S for zero forwards thrust, and tap spacebar for enough vertical thrust to maintain altitude. Hover stability airframe obviously helps.

If you tilt forwards (to lolpod), you will naturally start falling. You can't just hover on the spot with the nose down, however, you can afterburn with the thrusters pointed down if your velocity is low enough (on the mosquito and reaver you see the engines turn, unfortunately with the scythe it still happens but isn't visualised). This allows you to use the afterburn for vertical rather than forwards thrust, which with practice lets you do things like circling towers and spawns with the nose constantly pointed at the target, and fly backwards in dogfights.

Hold s and hold spacebar... Bout' Scythe, to use after burner for vertical boost like Reaver/Mossie, look at contrail of the scythe, if there's no contrai, you are in hover mode and your afterburner will go on a vertical way like Reaver engi point down

To be honest, analog suck, it's not like you are too lazy to hold down S key for 2 second longer anyway, when you use analog it would just make you way too passive and took forever to speed up again.

Thanks for the help guys! :3

Guess I'm off to the test server to crash into some trees.

Well to "just hover", just brake until you aren't moving forward and then occasionally hit your vertical thrusters to maintain altitude. That's about as simple as it gets. Mind that you can't really keep this up if you are also tilting downwards a lot to shoot at ground as you will be picking up some forwards momentum by tilting too much forward.

Or - if what you are asking is more like "how do I force my thusters down for use in various maneuvers" then the answer is a little different:
- You have to kill forward momentum, so either just brake, or better yet use your analoge throttle key (have to go bind that) to shut off forward momentum entirely.
- Then if you want to keep those engines pointed downwards while doing maneuvering you need to continually pitch downwards at least a little - especially if you also want to use afterburner to get more powerful vertical thrust. It is impossible to afterburn v-thrust straight up, but you can almost do it if you pitch slowly downwards while you do it. How much pitch you need is a matter of practice to master, as too little (or no) downwards pitching will result in the engines kicking back and your afterburner launching you forwards instead of up.

Usually you can just watch from external view to see when your engines are pointed downwards and this makes it easier to learn, but the scythe uniquely does not have moving engine-thrusters, so basically you have to do this blindly on the scythe. With enough experience you won't need to look to know what is happening - but for a beginner it can be extra confusing. If you are very new to it all it can be worth making a throwaway TR character and go practice with a mosquito just until you know the barebone-basics of how it works - and then you can go replicate that on the scythe without the "training wheels".

Hoverframe typically works well with these sorts of maneuvers due to better brake-power and more non-AB v.thrust power.

-Stigma

http://learn2flyesf.wordpress.com/category/guide/page/2/

You can't get a perfect hover you will fall slightly. Just tap the space bar to work your vertical thrusters.

Generally sitting there hovering is a bad idea because you're going to catch a lot of flak and a rocket or two. I strafe side to side by rolling left or right and using space bar. Once you get control you can start circling by strafing and never taking your crosshairs off the target. It's good practise for transitioning into reverse maneuvers.

Hover frame helps a lot.

1. Assign a key to "Throttle (Analog)."
2. Press the key.
3. Profit.

The only time worth using throttle down is if you're specifically trying to slow down and not go into hover mode.

Hover is always bad, because of these MLG guys keep posting their bloody moments with dumb fire ESFs on youtube, now even BR 1 kiddo pull out their rocket launcher to try to hit me while I'm hover ( farming ) rather than shoot me with their pistol .

Hitch, freeze, and you'll be in perfect hover mode!

But yes what others have said - use the analog throttle - the one function that doesn't have a default key binding in the game. Go figure.

So, hover is bad because it's easier to get shot down from ground forces? If you are hovering in one place, then you are an easy target, but if you learn to keep moving it's easy to avoid getting shot by dumbfires. It happens, but not enough to really care about. Hover is also used when fighting other ESFs.

Hold S and pitch down

Hover is pretty much staying one place dude, wth, it's pretty much Hold S and pitch down/up. There's no real fast moving when you are in hover mode

If that's what you think, then you are doing it wrong.