A follower's no-progress check fires whenever its leader moves at the follower's own speed

Fact

Declaring a follower lost (to teleport it, or path it afresh) when its distance to its leader has not improved for N seconds assumes the leader stands still. A follower keeping its gap behind a leader walking at its own pace never closes that gap, so the check fires during perfectly good following, at a rate set by how long the leader walks.

Why it matters

The fallback meant for rare dead ends becomes routine: pets, companions and escorts blink to their leader every few seconds of an ordinary walk. In a simulated run it shows as a steady count of "lost" events on open, flat ground, where nothing could be in the way, and tuning N only changes the rate.

How to apply

• Run the no-progress timer only while the leader is stationary (still for half a second, say); a follower that cannot reach a waiting leader is the case it exists for.
• For the moving case use a separate stuck test: wanting to move but covering a small fraction of the expected distance.
• Count the fallback's firings per kind of reason in a long simulated run on open ground: anything above zero there is the check, not the terrain.