haha, that was just a random picture I fished out of a big pile, I have no idea what it is from Just an illustration...
I would say bounty hunting should be a mandatory addition. It would give the game a lot of extra mileage. Hang out in your ship, farm some crops for food and bandages, kill someone for money, go down to the pub....
Early-game version? Like, bounties for newer players? There's no particular reason that all wanted criminals would be super tough, I'm sure 'scaling' the current difficulty wouldn't be too hard. Unless you mean something else.