A question about "Hostile situations"

[Blade]

I just started playing this game today, I've never watched anything on it and I've never made any attempt to find out anything about it after everything I heard about the release so I don't really know anything. I just encountered what the game said was a "Hostile situation". It was a shoot out between police and gang members. I thought this might be like one of those old Infamous games where you earn paragon or "street cred" as this game calls it from doing good things like helping the police in a shoot out but after I helped kill the final member that was shooting us, a crime was reported and the police turned on me. Was I supposed to mind my own business and not get involved or Is it a case of wonky crime system like Red Dead 2 had?

[Crimsomrider]

Hard to say really, most likely a stray bullet hit a civilian or you shot right after the bad guy got downed, which the game sees as V randomly shooting like a maniac near the cops.

You are free indeed to help the police and they even have lines for being helped, though be cautious around them as one mistake during or after a shootout and they turn on you very quickly.

[Azrael]

You probably either shot a civilian or a cop accidentally thats why they turned on you. Normally you can kill anyone who is a Tiger claws or Maelstrom or a Scavenger just fine.

[Silverbane7]

if you just started, then i guess you ran into those gangoons near Dex's car?
yeah, its best to let those guys play 'Cops n Tygers' (lol) with each other since they tend to pop back and repeat it every now and again.

there is also a spot to the right, near the cop car that is often parked outside Vs apartment
(two cops standing around, discussing a friend who, close to retirement, has been posted to an area that is likely going to get them killed, they are not happy)

those gonks will often completely ignore their 3 or 4 fellows down the stairs, who get into a shoot out with 4 or 5 Tyger's ( another lol)
you can help out, but going down the closer set of stairs, and coming up behind the gangoons can be difficult.

(shooting them from a distance from behind sometimes, you hit but the damage isnt registered. if you go down the farther stairs, you can use throwing knives reasonably safely, but guns can be a problem as you might hit a cop. which again, gets you a temp bounty. I've had the cop guy nearest the stairs thank me a couple of times after helping, though.)

generaly speaking, its best to let them fight it out between themselves, but helping with quickhacks can work.
short circuit, overheat, reboot optics and cyberware malfunction are good hits sometimes to help out, and if you can hit them from far enough away, the cops wont 'see' you doing it.

[simonhobnob]

Yes you can. You don't get much from it apart from the stuff you can loot. Plus the cops will turn on you with a single misplaced bullet or if you manage to shoot the last enemy but the game thinks the cops did it 1st. It's just not worth it. One thing I kinda wish they'd put in would be cred with the cops.

It'd be nice to have freeform "calling all NPC contracts" missions, that get harder the higher the street cred. Plus, if you accidentally shoot one, depending on your level with them, they'll accept it as an accident with your cred dropping slightly etc.

[Grobut]

The game does have a ricochet system, so it's quite possible that one of your bullets bounced and hit a civilian without you even noticing (it's certainly happened to me a few times).