It looks like Glow is the only one that does that. I've reduced the opacity to 90% so it's not quite as distracting.

Less contrast in the deep water now. I was using 'Glow' as the blend mode, but now I've switched to Multiply.

Is it possibly a little flat now I've done that?

I can always adjust it at any time up to publication, but at least we are rid of the cracked mud look now.

Ah, the darkened water is more contrasted because of the blend mode I used in the ocean contour sheets. I'll experiment a bit with that and see if I can get it to stop doing that.

Those earth tones are proto-desert fills. I think I need to work on those a bit.

How about this ocean version? It's the same texture, but with the pattern broken up a bit.

I think (though I might be wrong) that when these two were named it might have been before 'layers' were commonly accepted as the industry standard as the things you draw on in bitmap apps. But I also get confused at times by the now non-standard names for things that we all used in the early days of computer graphics. I use bitmap apps more frequently than CC these days because I generate CC assets using Affinity, GIMP, Krita... etc, so it was several years before I stopped accidentally calling sheets layers, and layers sheets, back in the days when I was helping new mappers on a range of different mapping apps over at Cartographer's Guild.

However, that's a great explanation from Joseph Slayton about how it all works in CC.

These are the layers most commonly kept frozen so the entities on them don't get moved or deleted by mistake:

• MAP BORDER - should only have a rectangle or 4 defining lines (usually in bright green) that tell CC where the edge of the map is.
• SCREEN - Holds the white collar around the outside of the map to cover up bits of symbols and fills that don't lie within the map border.
• BACKGROUND - not always frozen, but I prefer it that way so I don't keep picking the edges or corners when mapping.

Layers that you shouldn't manually mess with:

• MERGE - is used by CC, and causes some really weird stuff to happen if it's hidden, or things end up on it by mistake.
• SYMBOL DEFINITION - I wouldn't know how to technically describe it, but this layer has something to do with logging or controlling what symbols are in the map.

Example maps usually have all the layers frozen so they can't be accidentally altered, but if you want to make a copy and unfreeze the layers to create your own version for a game, that's easy enough to do.