Well, in less than one minute my shield disappeared and the 95% skill part was completely disappeared with it.
I'm a fan of old games where the most skill incremented the lenght of the game
There is no way to make the all time high score list now since the shield dies so quickly. I like the idea of it being shorter though, as wormat said it means more games, also means you need to maximize the duration of the game.
The shield is dying as quickly now as it always has, the code which handles this is unchanged. That being said, it is impossible to reach the current high score list without getting 3 shield recharges and 3 emp bombs.
I get your comments though, maybe we should decrease the speed at which the shield degenerates a bit.