Yeah, i see it as a state of action. Like when they are running up to you and shopping through your stuff they are not in a hostile state, but if they see you pull out a weapon there should be a message saying something like Npc is hostile and then their map pip in the mini-map will turn red and they refuse to talk to you. Usually then they will start throwing stuff or shooting at you. In the heat of the moment I forgot there is more info with V, I think it should say hostile.

I usually let them take the first shot unless they have me at a disadvantage.

M.O. when I see an Npc:

• Shift C to talk to them
• If they are friendly I ask if I can help them
• if not, I try to convince them to stand dowm, should say if you fail then they will go hostile
• otherwise they will tell you to drop your weapon, which I usually have at least a couple options and drop it or you can stow it away before talking. They will then either tell you to bugger off, then you can just drag, "/", your weapon with you away and leave them alone or they will rush towards you.
• Rushing towards you (after telling you to put you weapon away) means they are going to in all likelihood going to mug you and you can run away or try and talk again.
• if they refuse to talk, then I pull out weapon
• if they go hostile then I know they were trying to attack - going to go into a hostile state - will probably pop up a message in the message bar and for personal roleplay I wait for first response ( up to you at that point) - can be a gun shot or throwing stuff at you.