When I started out with large script integration, this "lag" is something I picked up very quickly, which of course led to me going the dll route. When globalstrings was introduced, I could gladly scrap my dll.
In my opinion, globalstrings is one of the most useful features from a scripter's point of view. Not only is it lightning fast with no message overhead, it provides a convenient place to store heaps of data without having to use arrays. And the data is available across multi-level projects.
With a little file-write and file-read, it provides an excellent little database for any project.
my 2c.

awe nuts! This means a total overhaul is in order for me... one step forward and two steps back... sigh*

yeah but those two steps back will then give you 2000 steps forward!!!

5 years in the "future" and we go back to the "roots" (aka "globals").
Progress not always go the right direction, Mike? 

This is nice to know, thx

Any chance of showing a patzer how this might work?

thanks Jes, I was actually going back to delete this post when I saw this response.  It really is very simple...

Now the question is how to integrate this with my very messy and convoluted inventory array system.  I am a bit rusty after not having worked on my project for almost 2 months

No idea what your inventory looks like, but here is a neat little way to handle inventory, and make it available to all scripts

//structure to hold inventory stuff
class INVENTORY
{
   string name;    //gun, bullet, bubblegum, bazooka etc
   int quantity;       //how many do I have
};
INVENTORY [] inventory(100);   //100 inventory slots

string S;       //used as a temp string buffer to convert numbers

void Main()
{
   int i,idx;

   //Setup dummy inventory
   if(iInitializing()){
      inventory[0].name = "parabalum 9mm";
      inventory[0].quantity = 1;

      inventory[1].name = "9mm bullets";
      inventory[1].quantity = 36;

      inventory[2].name = "MP614 Bazooka";
      inventory[3].quantity = 1;
   
      inventory[3].name = "Bazooka missiles";
      inventory[3].quantity = 6;
   }

   //either update global string array, so all scripts can see inventory
   iGlobalStringSet(inventory[0].name,0);
   iGlobalStringSet(S = inventory[0].quantity,1);

   iGlobalStringSet(inventory[1].name,2);
   iGlobalStringSet(S = inventory[1].quantity,3);

   iGlobalStringSet(inventory[2].name,4);
   iGlobalStringSet(S = inventory[2].quantity,5);

   iGlobalStringSet(inventory[3].name,6);
   iGlobalStringSet(S = inventory[3].quantity,7);


   //or use a loop to store the stuff
   idx = 0;

   for(i=0;i<4;i++){
      iGlobalStringSet(inventory[i].name,idx);
      iGlobalStringSet(S = inventory[i].quantity,idx+1);
      idx+=2; //work in steps of 3
   }

}