Update. I started up a game in safe mod, and the same problem occurred. So I created an empty res_mods, and problem came again. Therefore, is NOT a modpack problem. Sorry to inconvenience you. Would appreciate answer to my little extra question re Previous battle result in messages. Thanks.
There were changes to the minimap and other files a lot of mods use in 8.5.0. So mods won't work until they're updated, Aslain has just removed the older defunct ones, for your convience.
Just have to wait, i'm waiting for alt_minimap as well.