Right, IMO, Elite is awesome.
However, to address your concerns, you can play in open (world populated with other human players), private group (invitation only) or solo (you and the NPC's).
So if you go solo, the only thing you have to worry about is NPC's attacking you. That being said, in open, if you venture out of your starting system then player encounters can be rare. They can also vary, but mostly your encounters as a new player will involve a player helping you out (either by winging up with you and giving tips, or by throwing out a couple of tons of palladium that you can sell for a huge amount of money for an early game player). You will occasionally come across a griefer who will open fire as soon as they interdict you, but that is a risk you run with any MMO.
If you like space games, it is perfect. The game has a full Newtonian flight model (which you can fully utilize by switching off the computer flight assist, giving you 100% control of your ship.....ie if you thrust up for a second and remove power to the thruster, you will continue to move until a counter force is applied by thrusting down), though in space they do impose ship speed limits, otherwise you can just constantly accelerate which reduces combat into basically high speed jousting.
I play PC, so wouldn't be able to help out ingame, but it is certainly worth hitting up the Elite: Dangerous sub reddit, along with the Elite Wings & Elite xbone subs.
Any other questions specifically about the game, I can certainly help out.
