Things like Vader crew and proton bombs that say do a crit and do a or deal faceup cards do they actually do critical damage or do the shields soak it up like a normal crit roll

If the card says "deal a damage card" it ignores shields otherwise it is like rolling a crit on the dice. And I think it is even supposed to be adding a die result that could be modified if it doesn't say to deal the damage card.

Things like Vader crew and proton bombs that say do a crit and do a or deal faceup cards do they actually do critical damage or do the shields soak it up like a normal crit roll

If it says to 'deal a (facedown or faceup) damage card' then you do that - deal a card, regardless of shields. If it says to 'suffer 1 (critical) damage' or 'suffer one [boom/kaboom symbol]', then it is applied to shields first.

Do what the card says, do not do what it does not say.

(Unless the FAQ says something else, then do that)

If the card says "deal a damage card" it ignores shields otherwise it is like rolling a crit on the dice. And I think it is even supposed to be adding a die result that could be modified if it doesn't say to deal the damage card.

As of this comment, we're discussing three similar but distinct things:

1: An effect directs a ship to "suffer a (critical) damage". (e.g. Vader crew)

2: An effect directs you to "deal a (faceup/facedown) damage card" to a ship. (e.g. Wampa)

3: An effect directs you to "add a [kaboom] result" to your attack roll. (e.g. Advanced Targeting Computer)

1 and 2 are not part of attacks (even if they happen to occur during an attack), and aren't results that you can modify further. 3 is a kind of dice modification, and happens during the appropriate modify dice step, and is subject to all the normal rules for dice modification.

When you suffer damage, it goes to shields first, if you have any. So if somebody uses Vader crew to cause you to suffer a critical damage and you have one shield token left, you lose that shield, and it doesn't matter that the damage was critical. If you suffer damage and you don't have shields, then you deal damage cards, and it matters whether the damage was critical. Critical damage results in face-up damage cards.

When an effect instructs you to deal a damage card to a ship, it's not suffering damage, and it doesn't matter if it has shields. And yes, this does make it possible for a lucky Proton Bomb or a persistent Wampa to destroy something when it still has full shields.

As mentioned dealing (crit) damage is NOT the same as dealing CARDs even if the damage may lead to cards. Before damage can lead to cards it must first remove all shield tokens.

Vader crew deals damage to you (so if you have shields those go first and if you can recharge those shields somehow ) and to the target.

Proton Bombs deal face-up cards to ships.

And I think it is even supposed to be adding a die result that could be modified if it doesn't say to deal the damage card.

In theory yes. But only if you had some sort of upgrade that triggered on gaining damage or the damage was part of the normal attack routine.

I'm just making the point that some sources of damage can come from something other than an attack so you may not be able to do anything about them.

Thank you everyone

or a persistent Wampa to destroy something when it still has full shields.

He's a 14 point Phantom/TAP squishing machine is young Wampa. Love the little bugger to bits.