Yes and yes. Unfortunately. As Nick put it in one of his blogs (http://www.gaslampgames.com/blog/2011/07/21/laundry-day/) and listing bugs that need fixing: "Haywire not triggering, except when it absolutely shouldn’t. (Vampirism, traps, everything but your spellcasting.)"
So...that confused me more, lol. What does critical chance do for spells as opposed to haywire? Does haywire affect melee or ranged? Just wondering if it's balanced?
Haywire is supposed to be a Spell Critical Hit. That way, Announcer Guy can scream "HAYWIRE!!" at the casters and "C-c-c-c-c-c-CRITICAL HIT!!" at melee characters. However, Haywire/Spell Crit is currently broken and ONLY happens when YOU walk over Traps and trigger them, and on your Vampirism attacks (if you're a Vampire). It never affects any spells you cast - ever. Basically, it's working backwards right now. If you have any gear with Haywire chance on it, it's doing nothing to help you and I hope you have Archaeology so you can re-roll the stats on said item.
I thought you meant 'yes' to the thread title question of "does critical chance affect spells" AND the question in the thread...but you meant 'yes' to the question in the thread and the connected one in ()...major difference!