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In a chase, you want to take advantage of whatever the terrain has to offer. You should avoid places where there's no terrain, like blue sky, or in open space. Realistically, stealth in space is not easy.
Of course games, like movies, don't have to be realistic. So take whatever concessions your game has to make being chased or spotted more difficult, and use them. Even still, it'll probably be a lot easier if you stay somewhere where you can make use of cover.
Commentary by Keybounce (who has not seen the movie)
I'm not sure why people think that spinning solves everything. I mean, for most ship designs, your center of mass will stay stable. Trying to make a ship able to stay in one piece with the additional stress forces of spinning—and I can't think that either gravity or atmosphere is going to be kind to you here—is going to place restrictions on your ship, such that if you can spin like that, your center of mass is probably easier to hit.
If you want your spin to not have a constant center of mass, I've come up with two designs. One is two non-concentric circles (or ovals), much like (as I understand it) the patterns that were written on floppy drive alignment disks. The other, possibly more effective, would be a spiral.
Think about it. This is Hollywood. You are chasing a spiral-shaped ship, and it starts rotating. Suddenly, all of the attackers lose control of their ships for being in a hypnotic trance, and crash. Hey, maybe we should do that. Has anyone ever seen a story where, playing on the Hollywood trope of hypnosis, ships were designed in some way like this to make it impossible to follow them?
Meanwhile, in panel 5, it looks like the Falcon has a zero-gee walking track circular rim. Oh, nope, panel 6 we see it has a mirror, for people to admire themselves. Do we know anyone in this story that is vain, likes to look at themselves, doesn't really exercise enough, and owned this ship at some point?
Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)
Come on Corey! You can figure something out to hang onto! It can be pretty tough to quickly think up things on the spot sometimes, so it's understandable that he's drawn a blank. Thinking of ways something can be used outside of its designed purpose is pretty easy, but thinking of ways that will work successfully or not damage the original tool or item is more difficult. And after a time, those outside the box ideas might become commonplace as well so they're no longer in the original box. Like using vehicle tires as playground equipment; some of my favorite playgrounds as a kid had half-buried tires in sand.
Spinning isn't a good trick in my book, but it is a decent maneuver presuming Pete intends an aileron or barrel roll of some kind. I'm not a pilot, but I have heard of spin being a dangerous situation for aircraft to get into. It's very unlikely for a spaceship to worry about stall, especially the Star Wars kind that laugh at the need for flight control surfaces, but I would have thought that Pete would recognize the difference. Yes, I know it's a callback to Episode I, but at least that was in space.
I just realized that if the PIEs can fly at the Falcon head on, that would mean that they're much faster at flying. I would think that using that speed to stay behind the Falcon and keeping pace with all of the maneuvering that could happen would be much more sensible as the Falcon doesn't seem to have much in the way of weaponry that can track in directions other than forward. Maybe the PIEs are attempting to use their speed hit-and-run style tactics, but with the speed necessary to get in front and turn around for an attack, striking across amidships would be just as effective without the danger of the forward guns.
I'm also wishing that the comics were animated sometimes. This looks like it'd be another awesome special effects part of the movie, like the star destroyer interior. Even if nothing else in the movie ends up being great when I watch five years from now, the visuals of the movie images so far are very impressive.
Transcript
Finn: We have to ditch these PIEs or we’re not going anywhere. Stay low!
Rey: What?
Finn: Stay low, stay low! The sand confuses their tracking!
Rey: Right! BB-8, we’re going low, hold on!
BB-8: With what??
Rey: Get creative!
GM: The PIEs fly at you head on.
Rey: I’ll try spinning. That’s a good trick.
[SFX]: Pow! Pow!
GM: <roll> BB-8, you’re tumbled around the corridor, take 3 damage.
[SFX]: thud!
BB-8: Fly casual!