I've played the mod, still almost at the start, but as stated several times before, I think it's too long to kill the ennemies who shield/bot.
The best idea would be to make random the NPCs that use the shield, so in some cases some uses it, most don't. It's frustrating to have to take alot of time to only kill 1 little ennemy ship, especially with the ****ty ship/guns you start with.
So imo, remove the script where ennemies can use shields/bots or put it only so *sometimes* they actually do it, and it will be fine.