The bounty system still works with pirates off if there are at least 3 players, assuming no peace treaties exist between any two players.
Collecting bounty is not a very dependable or efficient method of earning credits, considering the amount of resources you would require to build ships to destroy targets. The Vasari are more of a resource-centred economy, since their scouts can capture neutral extractors, giving Vasari players an early resource advantage in situations where there are neutrals available for capture. Improvements to extraction rate, though each individual level provides less of an increase than one increase provided by Advent or TEC research, apply to both types of resources and in the end, only takes 8 levels of research to max out both extraction rates (versus 12 for the other factions).
Your credit income will primarily come from planet taxes for the start, then depending on how long you can make a trade port chain and how many ports you build, it may shift towards your trade port network. However, the Vasari have their port at Tier 4 (versus Tier 2 and 3 for TEC and Advent respectively), so you will not be able to make a large number of credits to begin with. This is slightly compensated for with Enslaved Labour, which can decrease credit costs of ships and structures by 4%/8%.
