"Missing" critical hits?

[isterija 1]

Not sure if this is worthy a separate topic, but I was unable to found any information on this issue.
So, I am trying to complete HT 4:4, which requires me to damage 6 internal modules or crew members in enemy tanks. Not having any Japanese heavies nor KV-2 and not getting the mission done via regular play, I've decided to give it a try firing only HE from E100 (yes, yes, I know, this is a sacrilege, but I was impatient and wanted to complete it as fast as possible). As it can be expected, every time I hit anything, there's notification about the critical hit. But in the results screen after the battle I see only a few critical hits (or even none at all). Does it mean that there is "critical hit" notification every time you hit someone with HE shell, even if no actual module is damaged? 

[Archaic_One 1,853]

2 hours ago, isterija said:

(yes, yes, I know, this is a sacrilege, but I was impatient and wanted to complete it as fast as possible)

HE-100 is not sacrilege, its is a sacred holy path of enlightenment traveled by the blessed few.

I too actually am curious about this one, I did it with the KV-2 but the completion seemed very arbitrary. 

[CraBeatOff 5,741]

I don't know the specifics but i know vision devices and tracks give the pop up and are external modules

[Balthazars 210]

Basically what Crab said - most of the time the critical hits you land, especially with HE are to the tracks and vision devices, which don't count as internal modules that you need to complete the mission. I'm fairly confident that the critical bell also rings when tracks and vision devices are damaged, not just when destroyed (i.e. de-tracked or completely knocked out). This probably explains why you hear the critical bell pretty much every shot but why you may not actually satisfy the mission requirements (especially with HE, you will damage tracks often without necessarily de-tracking them very often).

HE-100 should be able to complete this mission pretty easy, but actually just firing HEAT or AP will probably do the same too. You just need to look for juicy soft targets (Swede TDs or light tanks) to slam a shot into, almost guaranteed to do crew or module damage on a penetrating hit (if not multiple).

[isterija 1]

9 hours ago, CraBeatOff said:

I don't know the specifics but i know vision devices and tracks give the pop up and are external modules

I know that and so I am not surprised that I did not complete the mission. What I find surprising is that in the battle results screen no critical damage is shown at all. E.g. in the picture below, I hit the IS-7 twice, both time receiving "critical hit" notifications, but there is no critical damage marked in the battle results - not tracks, not vision device - nothing. This is what I find surprising. Is it a bug? Is critical hit not registered if the player uses a repair kit to repair a module (doesn't seem so, but who knows with WG)? Something else?

[Stiglic 32]

1 hour ago, isterija said:

I know that and so I am not surprised that I did not complete the mission. What I find surprising is that in the battle results screen no critical damage is shown at all. E.g. in the picture below, I hit the IS-7 twice, both time receiving "critical hit" notifications, but there is no critical damage marked in the battle results - not tracks, not vision device - nothing. This is what I find surprising. Is it a bug? Is critical hit not registered if the player uses a repair kit to repair a module (doesn't seem so, but who knows with WG)? Something else?

Modules have a certain amount of HP, and they only "get yellow" once a certain amount of that HP is depleted (half, I suppose?)
I beileve its possible that the splash of your HE did damage the module, but not enough to "make it yellow" - you would thus get the "ding" of a crit, but not the yellow status?

Sorta similar to how it was (maybe still is) possible to fail the missions where you need to survive a match with no damaged modules, even if nothing on your tank was yellow - as there could have been internal modules in "pre-yellow", but sub-100% state?

[Rexxie 10,788]

20 minutes ago, Stiglic said:

I beileve its possible that the splash of your HE did damage the module, but not enough to "make it yellow" - you would thus get the "ding" of a crit, but not the yellow status?

I think you're right, this tends to be what happens when you fire HE. HE's module damage radius is quite large, but most of that area will not deal enough damage to modules to hit yellow status. When your E-100 was getting critical hits, it was very likely you were dealing some damage to opponents' tracks, but not enough to count as you actually damaging modules.

[sahtila 95]

I did that mission ages ago with e100. Key was getting full HE penetration on enemy t54, that one lucky hit gave like 5 internal module/crew kills. I would guess HE ammo stopped by armor is not that good giving internal module kills. Like others already said, your critical hit sound comes mostly from detracking enemies or other external modules which are not counted for mission.

If you have some other heavies than E100 then could be worth taking the most fast firing heavy tank you have and just do normal penetrating ap/heat/apcr hits to achieve mission. Amx50b, amx50-100, Conqueror etc and then just have very good game with lot of damage, internal modules and crew kills come automatically if bit lucky. Even then try to hunt HE targets like WTpzIV. With Conqueror's HESH even more choices...

Thinking more about this, if you use E100, concentrate shooting especially scouts if possible... if you get through armor, almost whole scout tanks small internal space is inside explosion radius so you would hit almost every internal module/crew with single shoot and even with module saving throws at least some of those get damaged. If no scouts to shoot, then soft td's, or backs/sides of medium tanks. And try to not hit tracks so HE do not get eaten by them.

When no soft targets available maybe try HE hit turrets of opponents as there is most crew members in small space so HE splash can maybe reach multiple of crew in one hit even from outside, so multiple chances (dice rolls) for kill? Though not sure whats better in that situation, HE or AP/HEAT. AP ammo only damages modules/crew in who are in line with shoot after shoot pens armor so it can hit empty space enemy tank. Also ap/heat only goes set distance after armor (10x shell diameter so 1 meter for 100mm gun), so you can easily pen armor, do damage but there is no modules/crew in path of shell so it wiffles out without damaging any modules.

[isterija 1]

1 hour ago, Stiglic said:

Modules have a certain amount of HP, and they only "get yellow" once a certain amount of that HP is depleted (half, I suppose?)
I beileve its possible that the splash of your HE did damage the module, but not enough to "make it yellow" - you would thus get the "ding" of a crit, but not the yellow status?

Yes, that would explain everything.
Of course, in my opinion it doesn't seem intuitive to get a "critical hit" notification if you did not cause sufficient damage to actually damage or destroy a module, but that only shows how bad I am at understanding WG's game design decisions.

[Kymrel 185]

I have been observing the same problem. I've set tanks on fire and after the battle the only crit it shows is tracks. Somehow I set the tank on fire without critting the tanks or engine? I think there is a bug for sure, unless you can set a tank on fire without making a module yellow, which seems strange.

[UrQuan 34]

Remember that repair & medkits also exist & when used, nullify all your modules you critted on that tank. It's important for that mission that the modules remain destroyed till the tank is down / game is over.

So with reusable consumables, this mission did got a bit harder to do.