Ergo, I think it's a 'feature' with how you (and your allies) play the
game. I believe that Olympia is going to last a long time, and I
believe that Olympia has a lot of room, far more than I can personally
occupy. So this leads me to develop long-term alliances by repeated
small cooperation. I've even had people give me things (in the game)
for free as a first transaction, because it builds trust and
cooperation.
None of this took any unusual game mechanics. And I have some degree
of enforcement because I have a bunch of folks involved, and no one
wants a reputation for screwing their allies.
This is the same situation I had in Oly I, in BSE (which is/was a huge
commercial space exploration game), in Atlantis, and so on.
-- g