Vanilla ICE is not about frigid weather, Ice Cream, or even 90's Rap Icons. The ICE stands for Integrated Crafting Expertise. This "ultra-lite" modpack is packed with heavy customization. It is meant to give Vanilla+ minecraft the progressive rewards and longevity found in most "modded" packs. This depth is added in many unique ways:

Ore Distribution - Ore gathering requires more exploration. Redstone only generates in hot biomes like deserts, savannahs, mesas, etc... Lapis only forms in cold biomes, Ice Plains, Cold Taigas, etc... Hop in your boat to skim across the ocean spotting Diamond clusters which only form on the ocean floor. This spread of Ore Generation promotes building vanilla transportation networks; Railroads and hubs.

Useful Villagers - The entire villager trade network has been revamped. Villagers no longer offer useless junk trades and fodder. Many now stock strategic items that will help you progress in your playthrough. They require Villager Supply Shipments in return. But they will provide hard to find crafting components, unique enchants that aren't available by other means, spawners and spawn eggs to help you build mob farms, etc... Villagers are worth finding and building a relationship with in Vanilla ICE. This again encourages exploration as you traverse the world in hopes of recruiting villagers that will offer the best deals on the things you actually need.

ICE Crafting - The new ICE Crafting Table will bring a 5x5 crafting grid to Vanilla ICE. While most Leather, Wood, and Stone quality tools/armor are crafted in familiar ways... you will need to upgrade your manufacturing to 5x5 crafting for many of the higher tier Iron and Diamond sets. This means you will value, enchant, and even repair your lower tier items for longer, experiencing what it's like to NOT be in full diamond garb after only a few hours of play.

ICE Crafting

Quality Of Life - This pack is considered Vanilla+ because there ARE a handful of carefully selected non-vanilla blocks/tools added to the pack. These mostly fall under the realm of "Quality of Life" mods such as Quick Leaf Decay, Inventory Tweaks, or Death Compass. There is a small guidebook that offers a brief walkthrough of the customized changes in the pack, but all in all your progression is open ended. You will also find some basic enhancements like Mining Hammers and Storage Drawers. These are very resource intensive, and will not be easy to come by, but they will eliminate some of the frustrations that steer players away from pure Vanilla after a short while.

Atmosphere - The "lite" nature of this Vanilla+ pack means it will play well on nearly any computer setup, and still has room to include some ambience enhancing mods such as Dynamic Surroundings, and a combination of Hardcore Darkness and Moveable Light Sources that will really bring the chills as you spelunk for ores.

Hardcore Darkness

You are encouraged to stop by the Discord with any question or feedback!

https://discord.gg/rt9F7Yh