You cannot say "these people are friends with us". You can, however, make friendly overtures to them, refuse to shoot them, and attempt to earn their trust. Should the Nomads be willing to work with you, then it's all peachy- if they choose otherwise, you cannot say "they do stuff for us".
As for Phantom tech- the Phantoms are humans empowered by the gifts of a race called the Crathgyan. This is not common knowledge- virtually everyone does not know where the Phantoms get their tech (or even that there is a race called the Crathgyan), and while the educated can probably deduce that the Phantoms can't possibly be making it themselves, they can't figure out who is helping them. Or rather, who was helping them, as the Phantoms have lost all contact with their mysterious benefactors.
' Wrote:Does the phrase "Cannot ally with anyone" on the Researcher ID mean that it has to be the only ID when used in a faction?
That means "cannot give military aid to anyone ingame". You can have other IDs in the faction, the ones with Researcher IDs just can't jump to their assistance when shooting happens.