Recently I found an airship, I've been doing a lot of quests there and using vendors. Last night I accidentally broke a pot and attacked a npc character. All the npcs (except vendors and some questgivers) turned hostile. Is there any way to make them friendly again? The ship was a very handy hub on this planet..
I think that time used to be the best way to calm NCP's down, but not sure post 1.0. You could try and spend some time on another planet and return in a while to see.
I just found this text: "If not attacked or able to attack the player for long enough, pirates will resume being neutral." I hope it still works like this!