I would think you would want the minimap to be omnipresent given how important it is (to most of these games). It's been a while since I've played this type of game but I think that's usually the case?
It's intuitive for me to do something like select some units, then click and drag on the minimap to position the camera and then click where I want to go in the main view. Of course, the 45 degree offset you have makes this somewhat awkward.
Viewing post in Bombs and Bullets jam comments
Yeah, some time down the line we will need to update the sidebar menu. As you said, make the map omnipresent and perhaps move the various tabs down to the build menu. The build menu takes up too much real-estate in the side bar at the moment.
Having the map rotated 45 degrees, just like the isometric map itself, is the eventual plan. However, this big UI update is a few more updates away. We're currently just using default UI elements as much as possible in order to save time and make the rest of the game more functional first.