Here's something from the 2E version of the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook that I suspect was meant for the 1E version of the rules.

In the Starfighter chapter, you'll see various maneuvers pilots can make during combat. The text is essentially the same between the 1E and 2E versions of the game, except in the 2E version of the book, there is an added game mechanics section to each maneuver.

For example, if, when in a dogfight, your defending character attempts the Break maneuver (the first maneuver discussed), he takes a -5 penalty to his piloting throw at the beginning of the round. If he is still successful (wins the round), then the attacker gets a +5 penalty to the difficulty of his attack roll to hit you during the firing phase of space combat. And, if the attacker tries to reacquire the target, he gets a +5 penalty as well.

These modifiers fit in perfectly with the 1E space combat rules. If you look at the 2E game, then the rules become confusing. Space combat in 2E has its own maneuvers built into the rules (they're they same for vehicle combat). Using the Alliance Sourcebook rules in addition the 2E space combat maneuvers because messy and ill conceived.

I think the modifiers seen in the 2E sourcebook were really meant for the 1E game.

I was browsing through the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook, and I found two very interesting things.

1. In the Capital ship combat section, and in the starfighter section, the reason that ships combat so closely in space is described! And, this was written after the original trilogy but before any of the other films--and it looks like the doctrine stuck!

2. "Pick up your visual scanning!" I've always wondered about that line from ANH. I thought, for years, that WWII fighters were being enabled, and that line meant to use your Mark I Eyeball to see out the canopy.

According to the RA Sourcebook, there are a set of visual sensors (cameras, telescopes, different waveling receptors like heat over infrared, UV detectors, X-Rays, and so on--all passive sensors) that are in the nose of an X-Wing, and that sensor package is what is being referred to. Visual Scanners can see much farther than the Mark I Eyeball, and, typically visual scanners cannot be jammed.

So, when the starfighter's main sensors are being jammed, pilots refer to their "Visual Scanning" suite, which is not as good as the regular sensors but also better than no sensors at all.