Yeah, I noticed a bit of that too. "Minmaxing" so to speak kind of captures the sort of calculating animal hardness you'd develop in this kind of situation.
The limiting factor on meals is water. One meal is one filter is 3 parts. We can upgrade one of our workshops for ten meals. Marko has 15 slots, we can't afford to lose him, but is Anton worth a meal?
This is a really harrowing game. I was doing awesome this round and for a while I was riding high and it suddenly hit me that in all likelihood these good times are temporary and things will be very bad. That thought seriously distressed me in a big way, and I was right. Things are very bad right now.
The downside is that minmaxing against a static "opponent" means that any flaws can (and, from an in-universe perspective, should) be exploited, whereas a normal merchant would just tell you to sod off.
As I recall, the double food on the upgraded stove is 1 meat, 1 veggie, 2 water, 1 fuel. Even if he's not worth keeping around for what he can do (never had Anton; what's his specialty?), it's probably worth keeping him alive just to avoid the morale hit. (Also, see spoiler.)
Haha, yep. I was cruising along, smooth sailing based on a moonshine economy... oh, it's the cold season... just started distilling another 5 bottles... people are hungry, time to cook food... time to change the water fil--- aw man. Doesn't work in winter. Okay, well, time to melt some snow. Wait. That takes fuel. Okay, burn some lumb-- no, ironically, I spent the last of my lumber upgrading my heater. Well, you guys are going hungry(ier) tonight.
Kind of random thing I noticed-- if you have the resources for it, having a bed for each person works out quite well. At night, everybody (except the scavenger) guards and they sleep in the daytime. If you have a labor-intensive economy (cigarettes, mostly) you might want one person sleeping at night and the rest guarding.
During the ending, you have polaroids scroll by with images and descriptions of significant deeds, like helping a neighbor, or the first time you murdered somebody. If you want yours to be nice and positive all the way down, I'm fairly certain that letting a comrade stave to death would mar your record.