DayZ Developers Explain Why Bicycles Were Cut and Motorcycles Added for Badlands DLC

Some players might think that implementing bicycles would be much easier.

Developers from Bohemia Interactive recently gave an interview to 87.8 Survivor FM. DayZ project lead “Thales” and lead designer “Özgür” discussed the upcoming Badlands expansion.

In Badlands, events will unfold in the arid Nasdara province. Players will explore the largest official DayZ map to date, measuring 267 square kilometers. Traveling across the world will be possible on two-wheeled transport, as the developers confirmed the appearance of motorcycles in the game.

Given the post-apocalyptic setting of DayZ, many players may wonder why bicycles are not added to the game. They do not have motors, meaning they do not need gasoline, and using them would seem entirely logical.

A DayZ developer explained that “bicycles are much more complex and problematic to implement in the game than motorcycles.” Implementing bicycles requires more resources because many animations need to be prepared, and the game engine has technical limitations:

There are certain issues because our vehicle simulation system is quite complex and fragile, and we know this. Therefore, adding any new vehicles causes difficulties. Basic functionality, such as something in a purely arcade style where an object simply moves forward and turns left and right, can certainly be implemented, but it would look terrible.

In addition, the DayZ developer explained that animations would need to be thoroughly developed. In the case of a bicycle, significantly more animations are required to account for different poses, varying speeds, body behavior on slopes, and more:

All of this is significantly more complicated than in the case of motorcycles. Therefore, from a technical point of view, implementing such a system would be more difficult, and from an animation production standpoint, even harder. It would require adding many more variations of character interaction with the bicycle, different types of crashes, and things like that.

The creators of DayZ acknowledge that adding bicycles to the game would indeed look logical, but they consider the costs of implementing such transport unjustified. In their opinion, resources are better directed toward addressing other tasks.

You can add the DayZ Badlands expansion to your Steam wishlist via the following link. The release is scheduled for October 15 (the DLC page has not been updated yet, and the release date field still only indicates the 2026 release window).

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