I play in public fully knowing the risks and I love it. I enjoy the idea of possibly getting stomped on while doing a valuable cargo run from mining or just to see other players in unexpected places.
Yesterday I decided to try my hand at PVE bounty hunting (been playing about 5 years and have never tried before. Always just explored or did mining) and got absolutely rekt by the pirates despite having the feds there to help me. I barely got out of there as I was spiraling with very little control but somehow made it into supercruise heading back to Jameson Memorial. Another player (perhaps a pirate?) messaged me pretty much saying "your ride is so busted I almost feel bad about this". Then I was interdicted where I asked for mercy because I have a wife and kids back on Jameson Memorial that depend on me but he wasn't having it. He destroyed me faster than he interdicted me.
I did my rebuy but noticed despite being super close to Jameson Memorial when I was destroyed, I had to launch from a detention center a few systems over. Is there a reason why this would have happened that I might be overlooking? I never attack other players and I definitely don't try to attack security ships or stations. I thought maybe I shot at a fed during the bounty hunting but wouldn't they have turned on me during all of that? Instead they were assisting me.
What might I be missing here? Could I have had a bounty for some reason which triggered that player to attack me to begin with that the NPC security didn't care about? I almost only ever do exploring and mining so this part of the game is very new to me. Thanks for any clarification!
o7
