Going Wanted without ever knowing why?

I got attacked as I was coming into vantage point, I was fighting off an assailant then all of a sudden I hear something Like a contract has been put on me them I am wanted. when I land on vantage point I pay a fine the whisked miles away to a penal colony, where If I can be bothered have to fly a long long way back to my base. what is the point of it all, if I hit a guard by mistake I don't know they fly into the middle of battle (not my doing) and I have to suffer this is totally unfair. so instead of playing having fun I will now log off for a few days until the unfairness of it all fades. this is a crap mechanic part of the game.
 
It happens to me occasionally. No warning just BOOM wanted. I probably accidentally hit a system security vessel while bounty hunting, or a "clean" target, Yet I did not get the unmistakable WARNING BOUNTY INCURRED in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Bit annoying when all of sudden the whole world turns against me lol
 
It's not actually that complicated, but many do seem to be confused the first time they encounter it.

1. Accidentally shooting a clean ship (security, trader, whatever), is a crime. It simply has to be - there is no way for the AI to know your intentions. In my experience, if you hit someone once & just a little, you'll get a verbal warning. Do sustained damage, or keep hitting them, and you get a fine. If someone you have danaged is subsequently destroyed, you have contributed to their demise, and you get a bounty.

2. Fines do not (unless its a bug) send you to a prison colony when paid. So, before paying anything at a station, check your transactions panel to see if your sloppy fighting earned you a fine or a bounty. If it's a bounty, then do not pay it off at any station, go to an IF contact in a nearby low security system.

That's all there is to it. It's not complicated, it's not hard to follow, and really your lack of combat awareness combined with no understanding of the C&P system is on you.
 
I got attacked as I was coming into vantage point, I was fighting off an assailant then all of a sudden I hear something Like a contract has been put on me them I am wanted. when I land on vantage point I pay a fine the whisked miles away to a penal colony, where If I can be bothered have to fly a long long way back to my base. what is the point of it all, if I hit a guard by mistake I don't know they fly into the middle of battle (not my doing) and I have to suffer this is totally unfair. so instead of playing having fun I will now log off for a few days until the unfairness of it all fades. this is a crap mechanic part of the game.
You can find out exactly what happened and why from your logfiles. Copy and paste the relevant lines here if you don't understand what it says. You find them in C:\Users\USER\Saved Games\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous, where "USER" is your Windows logon name or USER if you haven't set one. Everything has a time stamp so you can quickly find the details.

The only time I've ever known someone put a contract on someone is when you defect to another power or leave a power in Powerplay, but you don't show as wanted. You get wanted when you become a criminal, through shooting someone or something that you shouldn't, getting scanned with something illegal in your ship or scanning a private beacon.

If you become a criminal (wanted), you don't have to give yourself up and go to the penal colony. Instead, you go and see the Interstellar Factor in the nearest low security system and pay him to sort it out. generally, you should never go near a station or base in the systems where you're wanted because if you get scanned by the cops, you'll get blown up.
 
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I sometimes wake up in the night, shouting WHY? WHY? Then I remember Bazmeson had a space sickness far worse than me and I go back to sleep.
 
The contract thingy can also happen in other circumstances. I've seen it after either becoming sufficiently unfriendly with a faction or while doing a wetwork mission.
The bounty hunter is, of course, clean (since you are the bad guy), therefore killing them will incur a bounty on you.
 
When I get a persistent bounty hunter on me I just hop to a system where I'm not wanted and let them fire on me first, or else just jump to an uninhabited/anarchy system if I can't be bothered docking at an IF right now.
 
It's not actually that complicated, but many do seem to be confused the first time they encounter it.

1. Accidentally shooting a clean ship (security, trader, whatever), is a crime. It simply has to be - there is no way for the AI to know your intentions. In my experience, if you hit someone once & just a little, you'll get a verbal warning. Do sustained damage, or keep hitting them, and you get a fine. If someone you have danaged is subsequently destroyed, you have contributed to their demise, and you get a bounty.

Intentions have little to do with it. In RL if you accidentally shoot someone it is still a crime. (Maybe not in America though. :p )

2. Fines do not (unless its a bug) send you to a prison colony when paid. So, before paying anything at a station, check your transactions panel to see if your sloppy fighting earned you a fine or a bounty. If it's a bounty, then do not pay it off at any station, go to an IF contact in a nearby low security system.

That's all there is to it. It's not complicated, it's not hard to follow, and really your lack of combat awareness combined with no understanding of the C&P system is on you.

I’ve noticed recently that I have been getting away with the odd stray shot hitting a friendly or clean ship without getting a warning. I suspect that is because I have changed my fire groups so that I can quickly switch off my turret weapons by switching to a fixed weapon group.

When I am bounty or material hunting in RES’s I lock on to a system that has an Interstellar Factor so I can High Wake out quickly.
 
Had a "known pirate" mission during the fight he wakes out i follow arrived in system saw his name pew pew (oh sheeet) that says clean pirate mate had parked near clean dude same name only shot him a little waiited for the sirens but nothing , not sure if scripted that way or just lucky?
 
I got attacked as I was coming into vantage point, I was fighting off an assailant then all of a sudden I hear something Like a contract has been put on me them I am wanted. when I land on vantage point I pay a fine the whisked miles away to a penal colony, where If I can be bothered have to fly a long long way back to my base. what is the point of it all, if I hit a guard by mistake I don't know they fly into the middle of battle (not my doing) and I have to suffer this is totally unfair. so instead of playing having fun I will now log off for a few days until the unfairness of it all fades. this is a crap mechanic part of the game.
Situational awareness, simple as that. I'm not gonna go on and say I've never shot an npc accidently (oh, wait, I did, whoops). And for you to get a bounty, you would need to strafe him good, over several seconds (unless you had him targeted, but, why would you?)
 
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