ExPetrum is a minecraft complete overhaul mod. It aims to make the game as realistic as possible without being frustrating.
The general idea is to create a completely different survival experiencefor the player. Not the kind of experience where you get the best tools during first hours of gameplay, but the one where every step the player makes feels like a great achievement. However most of those 'steps' the player makes should not feel frustrating to them. Slowly gathering all the materials through various different processes to make their first iron is difficult, complicated but not frustrating. Searching the entire world for that one type of ore required to progress is straight up frustrating. The later I am trying to avoid. The former I am trying to enforce.
The world itself should also feel completely different from regular minecraft experience. In vanilla you are the king of the world, doing whatever you want. ExPetrum moves you to the position where that is no longer possible before you are geared up, so it feels like the player is slowly conquering the world and terraforming it to their needs.
While realism is the main goal and it is enforced maybe even too maniacal the base idea still stands - it must be an interesting experience, not the frustrating one.
A new day rises...
You can see more screenshots here. I will add them periodically when I feel the need to do so.
ExPetrum now has a discord server! Join it to keep up with the development progress or just chat with other interested people.