I'd like to using the [Rank] wildcard in dialogue, for example:

"Welcome to DS9, [Rank]".

This looks great when it renders as "Welcome to DS9, Captain", or "Welcome to DS9, Commander".

But what does it render if the player is Rear Admiral, Lower Half? Does it say "Welcome to DS9, Admiral" or (as I fear) "Welcome to DS9, Rear Admiral, Lower Half"?

The latter would look ridiculous, and not read at all like real speech.

Not being able to level my Foundry test character, I can't test this using anything other than an Ensign. Can anybody tell me what the output of [Rank] will be if the player is Rear Admiral, Lower Half etc.?

it will include lower or upper half.

i believe this is a long standing issue with both cryptic made missions and the foundry, but its not an easy one to solve apparently.

Simple solution: rank up to Vice Admiral.

For the ten levels of Rear Admiral it is an issue, but for the other 50 it works fine. I use [Rank]. If people don't like the way it shows up as RAUH, then they can work their way up to Vice Admiral. But I think for the vast majority of players, they don't care.

I rarely use the [Rank] function - I think it looks rediculous in the text. Instead, I tend to just refer to the player as "Captain" when mentioning them in the dialog. Despite your actual rank, the CO of a ship has the title of Captain. At least, I think that's how it goes!

Using the [Rank] tag is typically only reserved for NPCs that are not under the player's command. Crew from other ships/stations/commands, and higher ranking officers (like say, Fleet Admirals) should be calling the player by their rank, but the player's own crew/bridge officers should typically call the player "Captain", which is referring to their role as commanding officer of the ship, not the rank.

But I roleplay that my ship is the "Admiral's Ship." In that case, even if the Admiral were to take command of the ship himself, he'd still be called Admiral. (Served in the Army; so I'm not 100% certain of naval traditions.)