BonesOfTheEarth

The worldpainting isn't the issue at all. Junar and Florensics did that in 2 Months. Gotta keep in mind, especially Florensics painted on a whole different level. What they prepainted was incredible. My favourite is still the Mesa biome.

But: You need good painters especially if you want more then what for example I can do.

The difference between the 'rough shape' that could be used as a map and what you want is the thing. If you want to create cool high-fantasy landscapes like Junar and Florensics did, it takes weeks and months.

If you have the map painted out perfectly you could hand it to the nations right away, they can do their prebuild and staff works on the structures right away, add the paths etc. Expect prebuild to take 2 months.

BUT. 

The whole planning phase also matters. The community, all the staff teams are also involved. This makes stuff more complicated: Communication. As well as motivation. Just because we could do a new map in 3-4 months in theory, doesn't mean it's likely to happen. You need to find people who consistently work on it. An active leadership. A big enough team.

So short form:

It's a combination of communication accross timezones with many people, motivation and the actual building process, writing the world lore etc...

From my experience, building ruins and other atmospheric things is what takes up most of the time spent building. When we skip this process it takes MUCH less time to produce, but the world doesn't reward exploration much from the get go.