So I thought if I changed my biome to Ice Plains Spikes that I'd get packed ice instead of regular ice but that doesn't appear to be the case. Anyone figured out how to make this happen?
Packed Ice is a separate block altogether. Freezing water will still turn to normal, uncompressed ice. In order to get compressed ice, you need to mine it with a silk touch pick from an ice spike biome in the Wastelands or Frontier. They look a lot like this:
Just the wastelands; You're not allowed to get resources in the frontier...unless you're going to be building a base in that specific location
Supporting what PenguinDJ said... Packed ice is not currently a craft-able item. The only way to obtain it is from an ice spike biome. Changing your res to a ice spike biome does not generate packed ice. Also what EnderMagic4 said is true. There are 2 ice spike biomes on smp3 waste. One is east of south spawn and one is east and south of south east spawn. Live map shows the light blue patches in the white snow covering. Edit : Also beside a silk touch pick... You can use silk touch shears too. The silk touch shear do not take damage harvesting packed ice like the silk touch pick does.