Project IQ - COB (Repost)

[scenic basin]

Hey folks,

I’m excited to finally share what I’ve been working on: a brand-new, highly detailed terrain of Camp Speicher in Tikrit, Iraq. This massive area was a strategic hub and one of the most significant Contingency Operating Bases (COBs) in Iraq since 2003-Present, making it a goldmine of history, scenarios, and storytelling for mission makers.

I'm reposting the showcase because I deleted some of the photos featured on the post by mistake.

The terrain doesn’t just cover the military base – it also features, the Tigris river, desert, towns and zones of conflict where the COB was briefly occupied by insurgents (2014-2016). This gives you a mix of large-scale military infrastructure and hostile engagement areas, perfect for your servers, whether you’re into COOP ops, milsim campaigns, or PvP scenarios.

Terrain Highlights:

Size & Scale: 6017 x 6017 vertices (12,032 x 12,032 meters) = 144.77 km² (55.86 square miles).

Realism: Around 80% accurate to satellite data and real-life ground photography, all of which I have personally captured (Photos). Some references are slightly outdated, but the map aims to stay true to the authentic look and feel of the area.

Immersion: Expect proper vegetation distribution, natural terrain shaping, and authentic environmental vibes that capture the arid landscapes of central Iraq as well as the wetlands and marshlands found in the floodplain along the Tigris river.

Lore-Friendly Naming: While the main base layout will be recognizable, sensitive internal camp names are replaced with fictional ones to keep things both respectful and immersive.

Visual Teaser: Below is some editor screenshots of the work in progress.

Initial public release is currently ETA: ~7 months from now - (~May 2026).

Stay tuned for more updates!

I’ll be sharing progress shots. Can’t wait to see the kinds of missions you all will create on COB!

[prime gazelle]

Looks awesome 👍

[tawny ginkgo]

🔥

[golden coyote]

This looks great man, can't wait for the release.

[swift lagoon]

https://tenor.com/view/takes-glasses-off-deal-with-it-gif-9227031

Why your screenshots look so pretty? And any estimate on dependency sizes? I love the Fallujah map but its like 6gb in total with dependencies so a lot of servers I like avoid using it. Hoping this will be more accessible.

[scenic basin]

Hi,

The terrain will have 11 dependencies, all total up to 5.12GB as shown in attached screenshot.

I'm afraid the COB is projected to be around 12GB (Currently 7.7GB) in size and which is mainly attributed to the following factors:

1- Level of Detail: Every house, corner, street and tile on the terrain will be hand-textured and made to look as close to real life as possible.

2- Designed 3D models: Due to limitation of what's already out there on the workshop, I had to custom design certain 3D models that will be identical to the terrain, such as Date Palm trees, Irrigation Pivots...etc.

3- Terrain Optimization: I had to redo the LOD factors of the 3D models to maintain good performance so that lower-end PCs are able to run the terrain smoothly at the cost of disk space (in other words, lower LOD meshes are additional object within the main 3D object that take up more space).

In conclusion, I can't comment on the work of other moders whom I respect, but I can guarantee you that COB will be ~80% realistic in scenery and detail.

Here are some new updates - The Khazimiyah town is 60% done.

[hearty lark]

Looks beautiful! can't wait but take your time

[swift lagoon]

12gb, is that going to be a record for map size? I appreciate the level of detail though.

[scenic basin]

Perhaps. Just note that all of the assets I will design will be included within the terrain and not in a separate asset pack.

Regardless, I'm honestly trying to design a vast map with textbook details in every corner in it. I'm just unsure how that'll sit with many of the milsim communities considering the size.

PS. Especially the console players who are capped to a limited downloadable content.

[south patrol]

Ehhh yes the struggle for a good map but having all the dependencies we need for them 🤣. Map looks great map. I need to start taking in what your do for mine.

[scenic basin]

In all honesty, having a large downloadable size should not matter at all. Especially since almost every mil-sim server you join makes download 60+GB of mods. I just feel bad for the console players being capped at what they are at.

I'm just trying to design something I've always wanted to see on Arma. Hopefully could migrate this terrain onto Arma 4.

[south patrol]

Oh I agree 100%

I tell my console guys on my team that it’s unfortunate for you guys but for everyone to be immerse in we need all these mods and it’s gonna cost you 20g+. You may not be able to swamp from server to server but that’s the cost to have a good experience. And they all understand. Just hate their life for how long it takes 🤣

[scenic basin]

Yup... It is what it is though. Let me know if you need any help on your terrain, I may not offer much, but I see some good stuff going on, on Highway 80.

[south patrol]

Yeah like wise buddy, I just got a 50 pack of Afgan houses I need to throw into blender. But depending of the size I may just make 5 pack of 10 buildings. So people can choose which pack they want. But if I can get more than 10 buildings that would be better. I don’t wanna go over 2gs per mod pack

[scenic basin]

Gotcha, bone-snap BI official furniture to it. Just remember Afghani houses are different from Iraqi houses, Iraqis rely more on cinderblock construction, Afghanis build with clay.

[south patrol]

Yeah, I’m just trying to get more than the Arma 2 samples models out there.

[scenic basin]

Sounds great. Keep me posted.

[swift lagoon]

Just curious, how long would you estimate doing 50 houses in blender would take? Also yes, please. Make smaller mod packs so people can actually get this content onto the 128/128 servers.

[swift lagoon]

Oh I meant to ask but I think I realized the answer already. Making the map smaller, for example a 4x4 section of the greater map wouldn't help much with mod size, right?

[scenic basin]

Of course it would, matter of fact, texture eats a lot of space. The smaller the map, the less tiles needed to texture. So it results in smaller maps. I just wanted to create the biggest military base designed on Arma (As far as I recall), so I'm creating something massive, with it some beautiful scenery.

[south patrol]

Yeah 🤣👌 the zip file for all of them were 4.6 gigs so yeah it’ll definitely be broken down

[swift lagoon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXMB0DOV7j0

[safe chasm]

.

[merry crown]

Looks good

[scenic basin]

Further work done on the terrain invloving enhancement of object LOD optimization to enhance frame rate mid-town.

Khazimiyah town now features a few areas of interest (AOI's) work on town to be completed: Mid/End of November.

[scenic basin]

😄

[golden coyote]

🔥

[patent flare]

You're ma men 🤩🔥🔥🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

[scenic basin]

Yeah there'll be no cross zones and defensive lines going on the terrain.

[scenic basin]

First Projectile IED is done and this is how it's gonna look on the terrain.

152mm pressure operated projectile IED.

[golden agate]

Beautiful photos and work!

[golden coyote]

Yo can console run this!!! 😂

[tidal bone]

I sure fucking hope so

[scenic basin]

If your console specs are anywhere as good as an Xbox X as shown in the screenshot, then yes.

[tidal bone]

Ok I’m good then

[scenic basin]

Trigger offset for IED's pressure devices are in place (19kg threshold).

[white flicker]

Will IED system be released standalone?

[scenic basin]

For now, all features are included in terrain, but I plan on creating standalone mods for the irrigation pivots and the IED's after I release the terrain.

[white flicker]

Cool

[fleet lily]

The way you are making this map I would like to see you remake fallujah that would be dope especially the way you make the streets look and everything it’s very immersive

[scenic basin]

I appreciate it. Fallujah is one damn big city. I'll need to build a team for this. I was thinking about Anaconda and Q-West for my next terrain projects after this actually.

[fleet lily]

Yeah that’s very true it’s rare you see urban city’s with real good quality i guess it’s because of how much time it takes

[white flicker]

Would you ever make a small Afghan city?

[scenic basin]

It is the most time consuming part about making a terrain. Especially if you wanna do it 'by the book', meaning, you'll map out all the houses, fences, walls, shapes and layouts of streets and garden all to perfection. I've been working on this town for about 2 months now. I'll need a month or so to finish it. It's a small town, but has about 600 houses in total. I aim to create a copy-paste real life location on Arma.

I'll show screenshots in a bit to demonstrate how cool will this terrain be.

[scenic basin]

Of course. There are many good Afghani maps though!

This is currently the town I'm creating. It doesn't look as big, but tiniest of details are input to ensure immersive gameplay and realistic appearance. I'm about 65% done with it. Agricultural area will take me about 2 more months to finish.

2nd hardest thing to detail will by my phase 2 - The battlefield area. It'll combine trenches, dirt barriers, Unexploded IED's, and the hardest part... The dunes and hills detailing.

[white flicker]

This sounds awesome, have you ever seen battles between ISIS and Peshmerga? Big berms and trenches inbetween ruins

[scenic basin]

North-Eastern half of this town will be ruins and collapsed/demolished houses. South-Western part and across the M5 highway, there'll be defensive positions and RQC.

[fleet lily]

The only bad thing is I’m on console so it’s hard for me to download detailed maps like these

[scenic basin]

Yes. Yes and yes.

[scenic basin]

I'm trying my hardest to keep things low on storage. But I'm not doing a very good job. I don't know how big the terrain will be. I can only hope BI will remove some of the mod capacity restrictions for console players.

[fleet lily]

Yeah man no worries console just got the short end of the stick but hopefully with arma 4 it’s different

[cold mica]

super excited to see this once it drops man, awesome work

[patent flare]

https://tenor.com/view/spanky-throwing-money-cash-money-our-gang-little-rascals-gif-7602783295867595867

[tidal bone]

Dude every time I see something new in this post my need for this map grows larger, GIVE ME GWOT BABY LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOO

[scenic basin]

I appreciate your enthusiasm. I'm working my hardest to get it done. I had a few setbacks with the new updates, I had to go back and redo some mods that got broken. Waiting on a few other dependancy mods to get fixed, none the less, work resumes, I'm 90% done with town, will post some screenshots once I am.

I have 3 other IED concepts I need to finish, but this one so far is the biggest IED, it's based off of a propane cylinder/bottle, with an explosive charge of ~11kg full charge and incindiary effect.

3rd concept is going to be a plastic canister (Most common IED type in Iraq)

[patent flare]

https://tenor.com/view/toad-hype-overload-overload-gif-7868864

[tidal bone]

Love your work bro, keep it going and take your time, would rather you be happy with it and be waiting then not be happy and get somthing that isn’t ready yet

[scenic basin]

Thanks bro I appreciate it

[fading crow]

Yeah, 25km² of city is pretty big

[scenic basin]

Yup. to my experience, creating something as massive as this in high detail will take a big toll on performance too.

[fading crow]

If we got optimized buildings I dont think it'll be that bad

[scenic basin]

It's not even the buildings. So it's the debris... The more you place object within a tile grid (leaf) the further you'll push the map into a script loop where you'll get frame drops.

Something like this.

[fading crow]

There wasn't that much debris in fallujah other than rubble in 2004

Civis left real fast and took almost everything with them

[patent flare]

Just some reference pictures.

[fading crow]

Yeah lots of rubble,not so much trash

Is the rubble prop that high intensity?

[fading crow]

Any clue what is with all the cables?

Nvm its power cables

[scenic basin]

I will think about creating a smaller Fallujah maybe once I'm done with the current map. I will need help though, it'd be nice to have somebody to help model similar buildings.

[restive tinsel]

How's this coming along?

[solemn ocean]

Whats the ETA on release?

[merry crown]

@scenic basin Any updates?

[steady saddle]

The way I see it it’ll come out when it comes out looking great! Take your time!

[crisp timber]

MAY 2026 is the approx release date (it says in the creators first post)